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Om Namo Bhagavate Ramakrishnaya! 

(Our Salutation to Blessed Ramakrishua.) 



I 



Published/IJnder the Auspices 
Of the Vedanta Society, 

EIGHT LECTURES, 



BY THE 



5^t^l\\ YIYEKANANbA, 



ON 



KARMA YOGA 

(The Secret of IVork,) 

Delivered in New York, 

WINTER 1895-6. 



PUBLISHED AT $1.00 NET. 



BRENTANO"S, 31 UNION SQUARE, W., NEW YORK. 



Cop3^righted by 

SWAMI VIVEKANANDA. 
Nev.- York. 



I 



ifER S41896 






.aO^ ^ 



KARMA YOGA 



CHAPTER I. 

KARMA IN ITS EFFECT ON CHARACTER. 

The word Karma is derived from the Sanskrit "Kri," to do; every- 
thing that is done is Karma. Technically, this word also means the 
effects of actions. In connection with metaphysics it sometimes' 
means the effects of which our past actions were the causes. But 
in Karmti Yoga we have simply to do with the word "Karma" as 
nieaiiing work. The goal of all mankind is knowledge; that is the 
one ideal placed before us by the Eastern philosophy. Pleasure is 
not the goal of man, but knowledge. Pleasure and happiness come to 
an end. It is the mistake of mankind to suppose that pleasure is the 
goal; the cause of all the miseries we have in the world is that 
men foolishly think pleasure to be the ideal. After a time man 
finds that it is not happiness, but knowledge, towards which he is 
going, and that both pleasure and pain are great teachers, that he 
learns as well from good as from evil. As pleasure and pain pass 
before his soul they leave upon it different pictures, and the 
result of these combined impressions is what is called man's "char- 
acter." If you take the character of any man it really is but the 
tendencies, the sum total of the bent of his mind; you will find that 
misery and happiness were equal factors in the formation of that 
character; good and evil have an equal share in moulding char- 
actei', and in some instances misery is a greater teacher than happi- 
ness. Ill studying the great characters that the world has pro- 
dviced I dare say that, in the vast majority of cases, it was misery 
that tri light more than happiness; it was poverty that taught more 
than wealth; it was blows that brought out the inner fire, more than 
prais«\ 

Now this knowledge, again, is inherent in a man; no knowledge 
comes from outside; it is all inside. What we say a man "knows," 
in strict psychological language, should be a man "discovers;" what a 



inan "learns" is really what a man "discovers," the word discover 
meaning- "he takes the cover off of his own soul," which is a 
mine of infinite knowledge. We .say Newton discovered gravita- 
tion. Was it sitting anywhere in a corner waiting for him? 
It was in his <own mind'; the time came and he found it out. 
All knowledge that the world has ever received comes from the 
mind; the infinite library of the universe is in your own mind. The 
external world is simply the suggestion, the occasion, which sets 
you to study your own mind, but the object of your study is always 
your own mind. The falling of a stone gave the suggestion to New- 
ton, and he studied his own mind; he rearranged all the previous 
links of his mind and discovered a new link among them, whicli 
we call the law of gravitation. It was not the stone or anything 
in the centre of the earth. So, all knowledge, secular or spiritual, is 
in the human mind. In many cases it is not discovered, but remains 
covered, and when the covering is being slowly taken off we say "we 
are learning," and the advance of knowledge is made by the advance 
of tliis process of discovering. The man from whom this veil is 
being lifted Is the more knowing man; the man upon whom it lies 
thick is ignorant, and the man from whom it has entirely gone 
is the all-knowing, the omniscient. There have been omniscient 
men, and, I believe, will be jet, and that there will be myriads in the 
cycles to come. Like fire in a piece of flint, knowledge is existing 
in the mind; the suggestion is the friction that brings out that fire. 
So with all our actions— our tears and our smiles, our joys and our 
griefs, our weeping and our laughter, our curses and our blessings, 
our praises and our blames— with every one of them we find, if 
we calmly study our own selves, that they have been brought out 
by so many blows. The result is what we are; all these blows taken 
together are called "Karma," work. Every mental and physical 
blo-^v that is given upon the soul to strike out the fire, to discover 
its own power and knowledge, is Karma, Karma being used in its 
universal sense; so we are doing Karma all the time. I am talking 
to you; that is Karma. You are listening; that is Karma. We 
breathe; that is Karma. We walk; Karma. We talk; Karma. 
Everything we do, physical or mental, is Karma, and is leaving its 
I marks on us. 

There are certain works which are, as it were, the aggregate, the 
sum total, of a. large number of small works. If we stand near the 
seashore and hear the waves dashing against the shingle we think 
it is such a great noise, and yet we know that one wave is really 
coD'pcged of millions and millions of minute waves; each one of these 
is making a noise, and yet we do not catch the sound of them; it is 
only when they become the big aggregate that we catch it. So 



every pulsation of the lieart is mailing work; certain works we feel, 
and tliey become tangible to us; tbey are, at the same time, the 
aggregate of a number of small works. If you really want to judge 
the character of a man look not at his great works. Every fool be- 
comes a hero at one time or another. Watch a man do his most 
common actions; those are the things which will tell you the real 
character of a great man. Great occasions rouse even the lowest 
of human beings to greatness, but he is a really great man wh^se 
character is great always, the same wherever he be. 

This Karma in its effect on character is the most tremendous 
power that man has to deal with. As it were^ man is a centre, and 
he is attracting all the powers of the universe towards himself, and in 
this centre is fusing them all and ejecting them again in a big 
current. That centre is the real man, the almighty, the omniscient, 
and ho draws the whole universe towards him; good or bad, misery 
or happiness, all running towards him, clinging round him, and out 
of them he fashions the tremendous power called character and 
throws it outwards. As he has the power of drawing in anything,. 
so he has the power of throwing it out. 

Now, all the actions that we see in the w^orld, all the movements 
in human society, all the works that we have around us, are simply 
the display of thought, the manifestation of the will of man. Ma- 
chines or instruments, or cities, ships, men-of-war, everything is ^ 
simply the manifestation of the will of man, and this will is made i 
bj' character, and character is manufactured by Karma. As is \ 
Karma, ,so is the manifestation of the will. The tremendous w^illed 
men that the world has produced have all been tremendous workers — 
huge, gigantic men, with wide wills, powerful enough to overturn 
worlds; and they got that by persistent work, through ages and 
ages. Such a gigantic will as that of a Buddha or a Jesus cannot be 
got in one life, for we know who their fathers were. It is not known 
that their fathers ever spoke a word for the good of mankind. 
Millions and millions of carpenters like Joseph have gone; millions 
are still living. Millions and millions of petty kings like Buddha's 
father have been in the world. If it is only a case of hereditary 
transmission, how^ do you account for this little petty prince, who 
was not. perhaps, obeyed by his owm servants, producing this son, 
whom half a world worships? How" do you account for this gap 
botvv'een the carpenter and his son, whom millions of human beings^ 
worship as God? It cannot be accounted for by that theory. This 
gigantic will which Buddha threw over the world, which came out 
of Jesus, whence did it come? Whence came this accumulation of 
power? It must have been there through ages and ages, continually 



6 

:growing' 'bigger and bigger, until it burst on society in a Buddlia or a 
Jesus, and it rolls down even to tbe present day. 

And all this is determined by Karma, work. No one can get any- 
thing except he earns it; this is an eternal law; we may think it is not 
so, but in the long run we will be convinced of it. A man may strug- 
gle all his life in becoming rich; he may cheat thousands, but he 
finds at last that he did not deserve it, and his life becomes a 
trouble and a nuisance to him. We may go on accumulating for our 
physical enjoyment, but only what we earn is ours. A fool msij buy all 
the books in the world, but they will be in his library, and he will 
only be able to read those he deserves, and this deserving is pro- 
duced by Karma. Our Karma determines what we deserve and what 
we can assimilate. We are responsible for what we are, and what- 
ever we want ourselves to be we have the power to make ourselves. 
If what we are now haSi been made by our own past actions it cer- 
tainly follows that whatever we want to be we can make ourselves 
by our present actions; so we have to know how to act. You will 
say, "What is the use of learning how to work? Every one works 
in this world." But there is such a thing as frittering away our 
energies. With regard to this Karma Yoga, in the Gita it is said 
that Karma Yoga is doing work, but with cleverness and as a 
science; knowing how to do work that will bring the greatest results. 
You must remember that all this work is simply to bring out the 
power of the mind which is already there, to wake up the soul. 
The power is inside every man, and the knowledge is there; these 
different works are like blows to bring it out, to cause this giant to 
wake up. 

A man works for various motives; there cannot be work without 
a motive. Some people want to get fame, and they work for fame. 
Others want to get money, and they work for money. Others want 
power, and they work for power. Others want to get to heaven, and 
they v/ork to get to heaven.. Others want to leave a name when 
they die, as they do in China, Avhere no man gets a title until he is 
dead; thait is a better way, after all. When a man does very good 
things they give a title of nobility to his father, who is dead, or to 
his grandfather. Some of the Mohammedan sects work all their 
lives to have a gigantic tomb when they die. I know sects among 
whom, as soon as a child is born, they begin to prepare for his tomb; 
that is the greatest work a man has to dQ, and the bigger and finer 
the tomb the better off the man is supposed to be. Others work as a 
penance; do all sorts of wicked things, then erect a temple, or give 
something to the priests to buy them off and give them a passport 
to heaven. They think that will clear them and that they will go 
scot-free. These are some of the various motives for work. 



Work for work's sake. Ttiere are few who are really the salt of 
the earth in every country and who work for work's sake, who do 
not care for name, or fame, or to get to heaven. They work just be- 
cause it is going to do good. There are others who do good to the 
poor and help mankind from still higher motives, because it is good, 
and they love good. Now, to return to this matter of motives, that 
of name and fame. These seldom bring immediate result; they, as a 
rule, come to us when we are old and are done with life. If a man 
works without any selfish motive in view what becomes of him? 
Does he not gain anything? Yes, he is the highest gainer. Unsel- 
fishness is more paying, only people have not the patience to prac- 
tise it. It is more paying in physical value also. Love, and truth, 
and unselfishness are not only moral figures, but the highest ideal, 
because they are such a manifestation of power. In the first place,. 
a man who can work for five days, or for five minutes, without any) 
selfish motive whatever, without thinking of the future, or heaven, , 
or punishment, or anything of the kind, becomes a giant. It is hard 
to do it, but in the heart of our hearts we know the value of it, and 
what good it brings. It is the greatest manifestation of power and , 
a tremendous restraint; to restrain is a manifestation of more I 
power than all outgoing action. A carriage with four horses may \ 
rush down a hill without restraint; or, the coachman may restrain 
the horses. Which is the greater manifestation of power, to let 
them go or to restrain them? A 'ball flying through the air goes a 
long distance and then falls. Another is cut short in its flight by 
striking against a wall, and intense heat is generated. So, all this 
outgoing follows a selfish motive and goes away; it will not return \ 
to you, but if it is restrained it will develop. Restraint will pro- ] 
cluce a gigantic will, that character which makes a world move. \ 
Foolish men do not know the secret; they want to rule mankind. The 
fool does not know that he can rule the whole world if he waits. 
Wait a few years, restrain that foolish idea of government, and 
when that idea is wholly gone that man will restrain the universe. 
But we are such fools! The majority of us cannot see beyond a few 
years, just as animals cannot see beyond a few steps. Just a little 
narrow circle; that is our world. We have not the patience to look 
beyond and thus become immoral and wicked. It is our weakness, 
our powerlessness. 

But the lowest sorts of work are not to be despised. Let a 
man who knows no better work for selfish ends, for name and 
fame; but a man should always try to get towards the higher 
motive and to understand what that motive is. "To work^ve have 
the right, but not to the fruits thereof;" leave the fruits alone, leave 
results alone. Who cares for results? When wanting to help a man. 



8 

never think what that man's attitude should be towards you. Do> 
not care to understand. If you want to do a great or a good work^ 
do not trouble to think what the results will be. 

There comies another difficult question with this sort of work. In- 
tense activity is necessary; we must always work. We cannot live a 
minute without work. What becomes of rest? Here is one side of 
life-struggle work, to be whirled rapidly round in the current of 
social life. And here is another picture — calm, retiring, everything 
peaceful around you, very little of noise, only nature. Neither of them 
iis a perfect picture. If a man goes to live in such a place as soon 
as he is brought in contact with the surging whirlpool of the world 
he will be crushed by it; just as the fish that lives in the deep sea 
water, as soon as it comes to the surface, breaks into pieces; the 
weight of water on it had kept it together. Can a man who has been 
used to turmoil and the rush of life live if he comes into a quiet 
place? The only place he goes to is the lunatic asylum. The ideal 
1 man is he who in the midst of the greatest silence finds the intensest 
activity and in the midst of the intensest activity finds the silence of 
the desert. He has learned the secret of restraint; he has controlled 
himself. He goes through the streets of a big city, with all their 
traffic, and his mind is as calm *as if he were in a cave, where not a 
sound could reach him, and he is intensely working all the time. 
That is the ideal- of the Karma Yogi, and if you have attained to that 
you have really learned the secret of work. 

But we have to begin from the beginning, to take up the works as 
they come to us and slowly make ourselves more unselfish every 
day. We must do the work and find out the motive power that is 
behind, prompting us to the work, and, almost without exception, in 
the first years, we will find that the motives are always iselfish, but 
gradually this selfishness will melt, by persistence, and at last 
will come the time when we ishall be able to do really unselfish 
work, now and then. Then, we all hope that some time or other, as 
we roll down the path of life, will come a time when we will 
become perfectly unselfish, and the moment we have become that 
our powers will have been concentrated, and the knowledge which 
is ours will become manifest. 



CHAPTER II. 

"EACH IS GREAT IN HIS OWN PLACE." 

According to the Sankhya philosophy, nature is composed of three 
materials, called, in Sanscrit, Sattva, Rajas and Tamas. Tamas is 
typified as darkness or inactivity; Rajas as activity, where each 
particle is trying to fly off from the attracting, centre, and Sattva is 
the eqnili'brinm of the two, getting a control of both. Each man is 
composed of these three materials; in each of us we find that some- 
times the Tamas prevails; we become lazy; we cannot move; we are 
inactive, bound down by certain ideas. At other times activity 
will prevail, and at still other times that calm control of both will 
prevail — ^the Sattva. Again, in different men, one of these materials 
is generally predominant. The characteristic of one man is that of in- 
activity, dullness and laziness; the characteristic of another man is 
activity, power, manifestation of energy, and in still another man 
we find the sweetness, calmness, gentleness, which are controlling 
both. So in creation— in animals, plants and men— we find the tj^pifl- 
cation of all these different materials. 

Karma Yogi has specially to deal with these three elements. 
By teaching us what they are and how to employ them it helps us to 
do our work better. Human society is a graded organization. We all 
know about morality, and we all know about duty, but at the same 
time we find that in various count;ries morality differs greatly. What 
is regarded as moral in one country in another may be perfectly im- 
moral. Yet we have the idea that there must be a universal standard 
of moralitj^ So it is with duty. The idea of duty varies much among 
different nations. Two ways are left open to us— either the way of 
the ignorant, who think that there is only one way to truth, and that 
all the rest are wrong, or the way of the wise, who admit that, ac- 
cording to the mental constitution or the different plane of ex- 
istence in which we are, duty and morality may vary. The important 
thing is to know that there are gradations of duty and of morality- - 
that what is the duty of one state of life in one set of circumstances 
will not be that of another. 

The following example will serve to illustrate :— All great teachers 
have taught "resist not evil"— that non-resisting evil is the highest 
ideal. We all know that if a certain number of us attempted to 
put that into practice the whole social fa'bric would fall to pieces, 
society would be destroyed, the wicked would have posssession of 



10 

our properties and our lives and would do whatever they liked with 
us. Even if only one day of such non-resistance were practised it 
would Tead to the utter dissolution of society. Yet, intuitively, in our 
heart of hearts we feel the truth of the teaching, "resist not evil." 
This seems to us to be the great ideal; yet to teach this doctrine 
only would be equivalent to condemning a vast proportion of man- 
Kind. Not only so, it would be making men feel that they were al- 
ways doing wrong, cause scruples of conscience in all their actions; 
it would weaken them, and that constant self-disapproval would 
breed more vice than any other weakness. To the man who has 
begun to hate himself the gate to degeneration has been opened, and 
so with a nation. 

Our first duty is not to hate ourselves; to advance we must have 
faith in ourselves first and then in God. He who has no faith in him- 
self can never have faith in God. Therefore, the only alterna- 
tive remaining to us is to recognize that duty and morality vary under 
different circumistances; not that the man who resists is doing some- 
thing wrong, but that in the different circumstances in which he is 
placed it may become his duty to resist. 

In reading the Bhagavad Gita 'many of you in Western countries 
may have felt astonished at the first chapter, w^hen Krishna calls 
Arjuna a hypocrite and a coward because of his refusal to fight or 
offer resistance on account of his adversaries being his friends and 
relatives, on the plea that non-resistance was the highest ideal of 
love. The great lesson to learn is that the two extremes are alike; 
the extreme positive and the negative are always similar; when the 
vibrations of light are too slow we do not see them, nor do we see 
them when they are too rapid. So with sound; when very low we 
do not hear, when very high we do not hear. In like manner is the 
difference ^between resistance and non-resistance. One man does 
not resist because he is weak, lazy, and cannot, and not because he 
will not; the other is the man who, knowing that he can strike an ir- 
resistible blow if he likes, not only does not strike, but blesses his 
■enemies. The one who resists not from weakness commits a sin, and 
as such will not receive any benefit from his non-resistance, while 
the other would commit a sin by offering resistance. Buddha gave 
up his throne and renounced his position; that was true renunciation; 
but there cannot be any question of renunciation in the case of a 
beggar who has nothing to renounce. So we must always take care, 
when we speak of this non-resistance and ideal love, what we really 
mean. We must first take care to understand whether we have the 
power of resistance or not. Then, having the power, if we renounce 
and do not resist, we are doing a grand act, but if we cannot resist 
and at the same time try 'to deceive ourselves that we are actuated 



11 

by motives of the highesit love we are doing tlie exact opposite. 
So Arjuna became a coward at the sight of the mighty array against 
him; his "love" made him forget 'his duty towards his country and 
king. That is why Krishna told him that he was a hypocrite :— "Thou 
talkest like a wise man, 'but thy actions betray thee to be a coward; 
therefore, stand up and fight!" 

Such is the idea of the Karma Yogi. The Karm.a Yogi is the man 
who understands that the highest ideal is non-resistance, but Avho 
also knows that this is the highest manifestation of power, and that 
what is called "resisting evil" is but a step on the way towards' the 
manifestation of the highest power, which is non-resistance. Before 
having attained the highest ideal his duty is to resist; let him work, 
let him fight, let him strike 'Straight from the shoulder. Then only, 
when he has gained the power to resist, will non-resistance be a 
virtue. 

Inactivity should be avoided by all means. Activity always means 
resistance. Resist all evils, mental and physical, and when you have 
succeeded in resisting, then will calmness come. It is very easy to 
say, "hate not anybody, resist not any evil," but we know what that 
means. When the eyes of society are turned towards us we may 
make a tshow of non-resistance, but in our hearts it is canker all the 
time. We feel the want of it; w^ feel that it would be better to resist. 
If you desire wealth and you know that the whole world will tell you 
that he who aims at wealth Is a very wicked man, you, perhaps, do 
not dare to plunge into the struggle for wealth, yet at the same time 
the mind is running day and night after money. This is hypocrisy 
and will serve no purpose. Plunge into the world, and then, after a 
time, wTien you have enjoyed all that is in it, will renunciation come; 
then will calmness come. So fulfil your desire for power and every- 
thing else, and after you have fulfilled the desire will come the time 
when you will know that these are very little things; until you have 
fulfilled this desire, until jou have passed through that activity, it is 
impossible for you to come to that state of calmness and serenity. 
These ideas of serenity have been preached for thousands of years; 
everybody born has heard them from childhood, and yet we see very 
few in the world that have really reached that stage. I do not know 
if I have seen twenty persons in my life who were really calm and 
non-resisting, and I have travelled over half the world. 

Every man should take up his own ideal and endeavor to accom- 
plish it; that is a surer way than taking up other men's ideals, which 
he can never hope to accomplish. For instance, we take a baby and 
at once give him the task of walking twenty miles; either the baby 
dies or one in a thousand will crawl the twenty miles, to reach the 
end exhausted and half dead. That is what we generally try to do 



12 

with the world. All men and women, in any society, are not of the 
same mind, capacity, or of the same power to understand a thing; 
they must have different ideals, and we have no right to sneer at any 
ideal. Let every one do the best he can for his own ideal. I should 
noit be judged by yours or you by mine. The apple tree should not be 
judged by the standard of the oak or the oak by that of the apple. To 
judge the apple tree you must take the apple standard and for the 
oak its own standard, and so with all of us. 

Unity in variety is the plan of creation. However men and women 
may vary individually, there is unity in the background. The differ- 
ent individual characters and classes of men and women are natural 
variations in the law of creation. Hence, we ought not to judge them 
by the same standard or put the same ideal before them. Such a 
course creates only an unnatural struggle, and the result is that 
man begins to hate himself and is hindered from becoming religious 
and good. Our duty is to encourage every one in his struggle to live 
up to his own highest ideal and strive to make this ideal as near as 
possible to the truth. 

In the Hindu morality we find that this fact has been recognized 
from very ancient times, and in their Scriptures and books on ethics 
different rules are laid down for the different classes of men, for the 
householder, the Sanyasi (the man who has renounced the world) 
and the student. 

The life of every individual, according to the Hindu Scriptures,, 
has Its peculiar duties apart from what belongs to universal hu- 
manity; to each stage of life certain duties are attached by its own 
nature. No one of these stages of life is superior to the other; the 
life of the married man is quite as great as that of the man who 
is not married, but who has devoted himself to religious work. 
The king on his throne is as great and glorious as the scavenger 
in the street. Take him off his throne, make him do the work of the 
scavenger and see how he fares. Take the scavenger and see how 
he will rule. It is useless to say that the man who lives out of the 
world is a greater man than he who lives in the world; it is much 
more difficult to live in the world and worship Grod than to give it 
up and live a free and easy life. The householder marries and 
carries on his duties as a citizen, and the duties of the man who gives 
up the world are to devote his energies only to religion. 

If a man goes -out of the world to worship God he must not think 
that those who live in the world and work for the good of the world 
are not worshipping God; neither must those who live in the world, 
for wife and children, think that those who give up the world are low 
vagabonds. Each is great dn his own place. 

This thought I will illustrate by a story. A certain king used ta 



13 

inquire of all the Sanyasis that came to his country, "Which is 
the greater man— he who gives up the world and becomes a Sanyasi, 
or he who lives in the world and performs his duties as a house- 
holder?" Many wise men sought to 'solve the problem. Some as- 
serted that the Sanyasi was greater, upon which the king demanded 
that they prove their assertion. When they could not he ordered 
them to marry and become householders. Then others came and 
.said, "The householder who performs his duties is the greater man." 
Of them, too, the king demanded proofs. When they could not give 
them he made them also settle down as householders. 

At last there came a young Sanyasi, and the king inquired of 
him. He answered, "Each, O king, is equally great in his place." 
"Prove this to me," replied the king. "I will prove it to you," said 
the Sanyasi, "but you must first come and live as I do for a few 
days, that I may be able to prove to you what I say." The king 
consented and followed the Sanyasi out of his own territory and 
passed through many territories, until they came to another king- 
dom. In the capital of that kingdom a great ceremony was going 
on. The king and the Sanyasi heard the noise of drums, and music, 
and criers; the people were assembled in the streets in gala array, 
and a great proclamation was being made. The king and the Sanyasi 
stood there to see what was going on. The crier was saying that the 
princess, daughter of the king of that country, was about to choose a 
husband from among those assembled before her. 

It was an old custom in India for princesses to choose husbands 
in this way, and each one had certain ideas of the sort of man 
she wanted for a husband; some would have the handsomest man; 
others would have only the most learned; others would have the 
richest and so on. The princess, in the most splendid array, was 
carried on a throne, and the announcement was made by criers that 
the princess so-and-so was about to choose her husband. Then all 
the princes of the neighborhood put on their bravest attire and pre- 
sented themselves before her. Sometimes they, too, had criers to 
enumerate their advantages and the reasons why they hoped the 
princess would choose them. The princess was carried around and 
looked at them and heard what they had to offer, and if she was 
not pleased she said to her bearers, "Move on," and no more notice 
was taken of the rejected suitors. If, however, the princess was 
pleased with any one of them she threw a garland upon him, and he 
became her husband. 

The princess of the country to which the king and the Sanyasi 
had come was having one of these ceremonies. She was the most 
T^eautiful princess in the world, and the husband of the princess 
•would be ruler of the kingdom after her father's death. Tlie idea of 



14 

this princesis was to marry the handsomest man, but she could not 
find the right one to please her. Several times these meetings had 
taken place, and yet the princess had not selected any one. TMs. 
meeting was the most splendid of all; more people than ever had 
come to it, and it was a most gorgeous scene. The princess came in 
on a throne, and the bearers carried her from place to place. She 
does not care for any one, and every one becomes disappointed that 
this meeting also is to be broken up without any one being chosen, 
-Just then comes a young man, a Sanyasi, handsome as if the sun 
had come down to the earth, and he stands in one corner of the 
assembly, watching what is going on. The throne with the prin- 
cess comes near him, and as soon as she sees the beautiful Sanyasi 
she stops and throws the garland over him. The young Sanya,si 
seizes the garland and throws it off, exclaiming, "What nonsense you 
mean by that; I am a Sanyasi. What is marriage to me?" The king 
of that country thinks that perhaps this man is poor, iSO does not 
dare to marry the princess, so he said to him, "With my daughter 
goes half my kingdom now and the whole kingdom after my death!" 
and he puts the garland again on the Sanyasi. The young man threw 
it off once more, saying, "What nonsense is this? I do not want to 
marry," and walked quickly away from the assembly. 

Now the princess had fallen so much in love with this young 
man that she said, "I must marry this man or I shall die," and she 
went after him to bring him back. Then the other Sanyasi, who had 
brought the king there, said to the king, "King, let us follow this 
pair," so they walked lafter them, but a good distance behind. The 
young Sanyasi who had refused to marry the princess walked out 
into the country for several miles, when he came to a forest and 
struck into it, and the princess followed him, and the other two 
followed them. Now the young Sanyasi was well acquainted with 
that forest and knew all the intricate passages in it, and suddenly 
he jumped into one of these and disappeared, and the princess could 
not discover him. After trying for a long time to find him she sat 
down under a tree and began to weep, for ishe did not know the way 
to get out of the forest again. Then the king and the other Sanyasi 
came up to her .and said, "Do not weep; we will show you the way 
out of this forest, but it is too dark for us to find it now. Here is a 
big tree; let us rest under it, and in the morning Ave will go early 
and show you the road to get out." 

Now a little bird and his wife and three little baby birds lived 
on that tree, in a nest. This little bird looked down and saw the 
three people under the tree and said to his wife, "My dear, wliat sliall 
be done; here are some guests in tlie house, and it is winter, and' we 
have no fire?" So he flew away and got a 'bit of burning firewood 



15 

in his beak and dropped it before the guests, and they added fuel to 
it and made a blazing fire. But the little bird was not satisfied. 
He said again to his wife, "My dear, what shall we do; there is 
nothing tjo give these people to eat, and they are hungry, and we are 
householdei's; it our duty to feed any one who comes to the 
house. I must do what I can. I will give them my body." So he 
plunged down into the midst of the fire and perished. The guests 
saw him falling and tried to save him, but he was too quick for 
them and dashed into the fire and was killed. 

The Ifttle bird's wife saw what her husband did, and she said, 
"Here are three persons and only one little bird for them to eat. It 
is not enough; it is my duty as a wife not to let my husband's effort 
be in vain; let them have my body also," and she plunged down into 
the fire and was burned to death. 

Then the three baby birds, when they saw what was done, and 
that there was still not enough food for the three guests, said, "Our 
parents have done what they could and still it is not enough. It is our 
duty to carry on the work of our parents; let our bodies go, too," and 
they all dashed down into the fire also. 

The three people could not eat these birds, and they were amazed 
at what they saw. Somehow or other they passed the night without 
food, and in the morning the king and the Sanyasi showed the prin- 
cess the way, and she went back to her father. 

Then the Sanyasi said to the king, "King, you have seen that 
each is great In his own place. If you want to live in the world live 
like those birds, ready at any moment to sacrifice yourself for others. 
If you want to renounce the world be like that young man to whom 
the most beautiful woman and a kingdom were as nothing. If you 
want to be a householder hold j^our life a sacrifice for the welfare 
of others, and if you choose the life of renunciation do not even see 
beauty, and money, and power. Each is great in his own place, but 
the duty of the one is not the duty of the other." 



CHAPTER III. 

THE SECRET OF WORK. 

Helping others physically, by relieving their physical needs, is 
indeed great, but the help is greater, according as the need is 
greater and according as the help is far reaching. If a man's wants 
for an hour can be removed it is helping Mm indeed, but if his 
wants can be removed for a year it will be more help to him, and 
if 'his wants can be removed forever it is the greatest help that can 
be given. Spiritual knowledge is the only thing that can remove 
our miseries forever; any other knowledge satisfies wants only for a 
time. If the nature of 'the man be changed, then alone all his wants 
will vanish forever. It is only with the know^ledge of the spirit that 
the faculty of want is annihilated forever, so helping man spiritually 
is the highest help that can be given to him; he who gives man spirit- 
ual knowledge is the greatest benefactor of mankind, and as such we 
always find that they were the most powerful of men who have helped 
man in his spiritual needs, because it is the basis of all other works 
in life. A spiritually strong and sound man will be strong in every 
•other respect, if he wishes, and until there is spiritual strength 
in mankind even the physical needs cannot be satisfied. Next to 
spiritual comes intellectual help; the gift of knowledge is a far higher 
:gift than that of food and clothes; it is higher, even, than giving life 
to a man, because the real life of man consists of knowledge; ignor- 
ance is death, and knowledge is life. Life is of very little value if it is 
a life in the dark, groping through ignorance and misery. Next in 
order comes, of course, helping a man physically. So, in considering 
the 'helping of others, we must always bear in mind not to commit the 
mistake of thinking that phj-sical help is the only help that 
can be given; physical help is the' last and the least, be- 
cause there is no permanent satiation. The misery that I feel 
when I am hungry is satisfied by eating, but hunger returns again; 
misery can only cease when I am satisfied beyond all want. Then 
hunger will not make me miserable; no distress, no misery, no sorrow 
will be able to move me. So that help which tends to make us strong 
■spiritually is the highest help; next to it comes intellectual help and 
after that physical help. 

The miseries of the world cannot be cured by simply physical 
help; until man'is nature changes these physical needs will always 
arise, and miseries will be always felt, and no amouu't of physical 



belp given to the world will cure that misery. The only solution of 
the problem of all this misery dn the world is to make mankind pure. 
Ignorance is the mother of all the evil and all the misery we see. 
Let men have light, let them be spiritually strong, and if we can ac- 
complish this, if all mankind becomes pure and spiritually strong 
and educated, then alone will misery cease in the world and not be- 
fore then. We may convert every house in the country into a charity 
asylum; we may fill the lands with hospitals, but the misery will still 
exist until man's character changes. 

We read in the Gita again and again that we must all work in- 
cessantly, but all work must be composed of good and evil; we can- 
not do any work which has not isome part of good somewhere; there 
cannot be any work which will not injure some one somewhere. 
Every work must necessarily be a mixture of good and evil; yet we 
are told to work incessantly; the good and evil will both have their 
results, make their Karma; the good action will entail upon us good 
effect; the bad action bad effect, but good and bad are both bondages 
of the soul. The solution reached in the Gita is that if we do not 
attach ourselves to the work it will not take any effect on us. We 
will try to understand what is meant by this "non-attachment" to 
work. 

It is( the one central idea in the Gita; work incessantly, but be not 
attached to it. "Samskara" can be translated very nearly by the 
word tendency. Using the simile of a lake for the imind, every 
ripple, every wave that rises in the mind when it subsides does not 
die out entirely, but leaves a mark and a future possiibility of that 
wave coming out again. This mark, with the possibility of the 
wave reappearing, is what is called Samskara. Each work that we 
do, each movement of the body, each thought In the mind, is leaving 
such an impression on the mind stuff, and even when they are not ob- 
vious on the surface these marks are 'SuflSoiently strong to work be- 
neath the surface, sub-consciously. What we are each moment is 
■determined by the sum total of these impressions on the mind. What 
I am just at this moment is the effect of the sum total of these 
marks, of my past life. This is really what is meant by character; 
each man's character is determined by the isum total of these impres- 
sions. If good impressions prevail, that character becomes good; if 
bad, that character becomes bad. If a man continuously hears bad 
words, thinks bad thoughts, does bad actions, his mind will be full 
of these impressions, or marks, and they, unconsciously, will govern 
the tendency of his work. In fact, these impressions are always 
working, and the expression will be evil; that man will be a bad man; 
he cannot help it; the sum total of these impressions will create the 
strong motive power for doing bad actions; he will be a machine in 



18 

the laands of his impressions, and they will force him to do evlL 
Similarly, if a man thinks good thoughts and does good works the 
sum total of these impressions will be good, and they, in a similar 
manner, will force him to do good in spite of himself. When a man 
hajs done so much good work land thought so many good thoughts 
that there is an irresistible tendency in his nature to do good in spite 
of himself, then, even if he thinks he will do evil, the mind, in the 
sum total of its tendencies, will not allow him to do so; the tendencies 
will turn him back; he is at the mercy of his good tendencies. When 
that is the case that man's character is said to be established^. 

As the tortoise tucks his feet and head inside of his shell, and you 
may kill him and break him in pieces, yet they will not come out, 
even so the character of that man who has control over his centres 
and organs is established: By this 'Oontinuous reflex of goiod 
thoughts, good impressions moving over the surface of the mind, the 
tendency becomes strong for good, and the result is that we control 
the "indriyas" (the sensory and motor organs). Then alone will the 
character be established; then alone you get to truth; that man is 
safe forever; he cannot do any evil; you may throw him anywhere; 
you may put him in any company; there will be no danger for him. 
There is a still higher stage than having this good tendency, the de- 
sire for liberation. You must remember that freedom of the soul 
is the goal of all these Yogas, and each one equally leads to the 
same result. Just by work men can get where Buddha got by 
meditation or Christ by prayer. Buddha was a Gnani; Christ was a 
Bhakta, but the same goal was reached. The difficulty is here. Lib- 
eration means entire freedom— freedom from the bondages of good, 
as well as from the bondages of evil. A golden chain is as much 
a chain as an iron chain. There is a thorn in my finger, and I use 
another thorn to take the first thorn out, and when I have taken 
it out I throw both thorns aside; I have no necessity for keeping 
the second thorn, because both are thorns, after all. So the bad 
tendencies are to be counteracted by the good tendencies, and 
the 'bad marks of the mind should be conquered by fresh waves of 
good marks, until those that are evil almost disappear or are subdued 
or held in control in one corner of the mind; ibut after that, the good 
tendencies have also to be conquered; the "attached" becomes "un- 
attached." Work, TDut let not the action or the thought produce a 
deep impression on the mind; let the ripple come; let huge actions 
proceed from the muscles and the 'brain, but let them not make any 
deep impression on the soul. How can that be done? We see that 
the impression of any action to which we join ourselves remains. 

I may meet hundreds of persons during the day, but I meet one I 
love, and when I retire at night I may try to think of all the faces. 



19 

but that face comes which I met only for one minute, and which I 
loved, and all the others have vanished. My attachment to this 
particular person caused a deeper impression on my mind than all 
the other faces. Physiologically, the impressions have all been the 
same; every one of these faces that I saw pictured itself on the 
retina, and the brain took the picture In, and yet there was no 
similar effect upon the mind. But in the case of that man, of whom 
I caught, perhaps, only a glimpse, a deeper impression was made, 
because the other faces found no association in my mind; most of 
them, perhaps, were entirely new, faces about which I never thought 
before, but that one face, of which I got only a glimpse, found associa- 
tions inside. Perhaps I had pictured him for years, knew hundreds 
of things about him, and this one new thing found hundreds of 
kindred things inside my mind, and all these associations were 
aroused; the impression on my mental vision was a hundred times 
more than the seeing of all those different faces together, and, such 
being the case, a tremendous impression will be immediately made 
upon the mind. 

Therefore, be "unattached;" let things work; let brain centres- 
work, work incessantly, but let not a ripple conquer the mind. Work 
as if you were a stranger in this land, a sojourner; work incessantly,, 
but do not bind yourselves; bondage is terrible. This world is not 
our habitation, only one of the many stages through which we are 
passing. Remember that great saying of Sankhya, "The whole of 
nature is for the soul, not the soul for nature." The very reason of 
nature's existence is for the education of the soul; it has no other 
meaning; it is there because the soul must have knowledge, and 
through knowledge will free itself. If we remember this always 
we shall never be attached to nature; we will know that nature is a 
book in which we are to read, and when we have gained that knowl- 
edge the book is of no more value to us. Instead of that, however, 
we are identifying ourselves with nature; we are thinking that the 
soul is for nature, just as the common saying is that one man "lives 
to eat" and another "eats to live;" we are continually making this 
mistake; we are regarding nature as ourselves and are becoming at- 
tached to it, and as soon as this attachment comes there is this 
deep impression on the soul, which binds us down and makes us work 
like slaves. 

The whole gist of this teaching is that you should work like a 
master and not as a slave; work incessantly, but not slave's work. 
Do you not see how everybody works? Nobody can rest; ninety-nine 
per cent of mankind work as slaves, and the result is misery; it is 
selfish work. Work through freedom! Work through love! The 
word love is very difficult to understand; It never comes until there 



20 

is freedom. There is no love in the slave. If you buy a slave and 
tie him down in chains and make him work for you he will work like 
a drudge, but there will be no love. So when we ourselves work for 
the world as slaves, there is no love, and it is not true work. The 
same applies to our work for our relatives and friends, even for our 
own iselves. Suppose a man loves a woman; he wlsihes to have 
her all to himself and feels extremely jealous about her every mo- 
ment; he wants her to sit near him, to stand near him and eat and 
move at his bidding. He is a slave to her. That is not love; it is a 
sort of morbid affection of the slave, insinuating itself as love. It 
cannot be love, because it is painful; if she does not do what he 
wants it brings pain. With love there is no painful reaction; love 
only brings a reaction of 'bliss; if it does not it is not love; we 
are mistaking something else for love. When you have succeeded 
in loving your husband, your wife, your children, the whole world, 
the universe, in such a manner that there is no reaction of pain, or 
jealousy, no selfish feeling, then you a^e in a fit state to be unat- 
tached. 

Krishna says, "Look at me, Arjuna! If I stop fromi work for 
one moment the whole universe will die. Yet I have nothing to 
gain from the universe; I am one Lord; I have nothing to gain 
from the universe; but why do I work? because I love the world." 
God is unattached because He loves; that real love makes us un- 
attached. Wh;.erever /there is thi(s attaichment, this tremendous 
clinging, you must know it is physical, a sort of physical attraction 
between particles of matter and other particles of matter, some- 
thing that attracts two bodies nearer and nearer all the time, and 
if they cannot get near it becomes painful; but where there is real 
love it does not count on physical attachment at all. That body 
may Tbe a thousand miles distant, love is all the same; it does not 
die; there will never be a reaction. 

To attain this unattachment is almost a life work, but as soon 
as we have got to this point we have attained the goal and be- 
come free; the bondage of nature falls from us, and we see nature 
as it is; nature forges no more chains for us; we stand entirely free 
and take not the results of work into consideration; who cares what 
the results be, either good or bad? The man who works through 
freedom does not care for the results. 

Do you ask anything from your children in return for what you 
have given them? It is your duty to work for them, and there it 
stops. Whatever you do for a particular person, a city, or a State, 
do it, 'but assume the same attitude as you have towards 
your children— expect nothing. If you can incessantly take that 
position that you are a giver, that everything given by you is a 



21 

free offering to the world, without any thought of return, that will 
be work which will not bring attachment. Attachment only comes 
where w^e expect something. 

This idea of complete self-sacrifice is illustrated in the following 
story: — After the battle of Kurukshetra the five Panda brothers 
held a great sacrifice and made very large gifts -to the poor. All 
the people expressed amazemen't at the greatness and richness of 
the sacrifice and said that such a sacrifice the world had never seen 
before. But, after the ceremony, there came a Mttle mongoose; 
half his body was golden, and the other half was brown, and he 
began to roll himself on the floor of the sacrificial hall. Then he 
said to those around, "You are all liars; this is no sacrifice." "What!" 
they exclaimed, "you say this is no sacrifice; do you not know 
how money and jewels Avere poured out upon the poor and every 
one became rich and happj^? This was the most wonderful sacrifice 
any man ever made." But the mongoose said, "There w^as once a 
little village, and in it there dwelt a poor Brahmin, with his wife, 
his son and his son's wife. They were very poor and lived on alms 
gained in preaching and teaching, for which men made little gifts 
to them. 

"There came in that land a three years' famdne, and the poor 
Brahmin suffered more than ever. At last for five days the family 
starved, but on the fifth day the father brought home a little barley 
flour, which he had been fortunate enough to find, and he divided 
it into four parts, one for each of them. They prepared it for 
their meal, and just as they were about to eat it a knock came at the 
door. The father opened it, and there stood a guest. Now in India 
a guest is sacred; he is as a god for the time being, and must be 
treated as such. So the poor Brahmin said, 'Come in, sir; you are 
welcome.' He set before the guest his own portion of food, and 
the latter quickly ate it up and then said, 'Oh, sir, you have 
killed me; I have been starving for ten days, and this little bit has 
but increased my hunger.' Then the wife said to her husband, 
'Give him my share,' but the huslband said, 'Not so.' The wife, how- 
ever, insisted, saying, 'Here is a poor man, and it is our dutj^ as 
householders to see that he is fed, and it is my duty as a wife to give 
him mj portion, seeing that you have no more to offer him.' Then 
she gave her share to the guest, and he ate it up and said he was 
still burning with hunger. So the son said, 'Take my portion also; 
it is the duty of a son to help his father fulfil his obligations.' The 
guest ate that, but remained still unsatisfied; so the son's wife gave 
him her portion also. That was sufficient, and the guest departed, 
blessing them. 

"That night those four people died of starvation. A few grains 



22 

of that flour had fallen on the floor, and when I rolled my body on 
them half of it became golden, as you see it. Since then I have 
been all over the world, hoping to find another sacrifice like that, but 
never have I found one; nowhere else has the other half of my 
body been turned into gold. That is why I say this is no sacrifice." 



CHAPTER IV. 

WHAT IS DUTY? 

It is necessary to know what work is, and with that comes, nat- 
urally, the question, What is duty? If I have to do something I must 
first know my duty and that I can: do it. The idea of duty, again, is 
so different in different nations. The Mohammedan saj^s what is 
written in his book, the Qur'an, is his duty; the Hindu says what is 
in his book, the Vedas, is his duty, and the Christian says what 
is in his Bible is his duty. So we find that there must be varied ideas 
of duty, differing according to different states in life, different periods 
and different nations. The term "duty," like every other universal 
abstract term, is impossible to define; we can only get an idea of it by 
describing the surroundings and by knowing its actions and its re- 
sults. To make an objective definition of duty would be entirely im- 
possible; there is no such thing as objective duty. Yet there is duty 
from the subjective si&e; any action that makes us go godward is a 
good action, and is our duty; any action that makesi us go downward 
is an evil action. There is only one idea which is universal for all 
mankind, of any age or sect and country, and that has been summed 
up in the Sanskrit aphorism: — "Do not injure any being; non-injuring 
any being is virtue; injuring any being is vice. 

One point we ought to remember is that we should always try to 
see the dutj-^ of others through their own eyes, and never want to 
judge the customs of other races or other peopled by our own stand- 
ard. "I am not the standard of the universe." This is the great les- 
son to learn. "Ii have to accommodate myself to the Avorld, and not 
the world to me." Therefore we see that environments will change 
our duties, and doing in the best way that duty which is ours at a 
certain time is the best thing ^^e can do in this world. Let us do that 
duty which is ours by birth, and when we have done that do the duty 
which is ours by our position. Bach man is placed in some position 
in life, and must do the duties of that position first. There is one 
great danger in human nature, that man never looks at himself. He 
thinks he is quite as fit to be on the throne as- the king. Even if he 
is, he must first show that he has done the duty of his own position, 
and when he has done that, higher duty will come to him. 



• 24 

Later on we will find tlaat even the idea of duty will have to be 
changed, and that the greatest work is only done when there is the 
least motive urging us from behind. Yet it is work through duty that 
leads us to work without any idea of duty; when work will become 
worship— nay, higher, work will stand alone for its own sake. But 
that is the ideal, and the way lies through duty. We shall find the 
philosophy behind all duties, either in the form of ethics or love, is- 
the same as that in every other Yoga— attenuating the lower self, so 
that the real self may shine; to circumscribe the frittering away of 
energies on the lower planes of existence, so that the soul may mani- 
fest itself on the higtier planes. This is accomplished by the continu- 
ous denial of low desires, which duty rigorously requires. The whole 
organization of society has thus been developed, consciously or un- 
consciously, as the land of actions, the field of experience, where, by 
limiting the desires of selfishness, we open the w^ay to an unlimited 
expansion of the real nature of man. 

And duty is seldom sweet.. It is only when love greases its wheels; 
that it runs smoothly; else it is a continuous friction. What parents 
can do their duties to their children ? What children to their parents? 
What husband to his wife? What wife to her husband? Do we not 
meet with cases of friction every day in our lives? Duty is sweet 
only through love, love shines alone in freedom; yet is it freedom to 
be a slave to the senses, to anger, to jealousies and a hundred other 
petty things that must occur every day in human life? In all these 
little roughnesses that we meet with in life the highest expression of 
freedom is to forbear. Women, slaves- to their' own irritable, jealous 
tempers, are apt to attribute the blame to their husbands, and assert 
their freedom, as they think, not knowing that they are only proving 
that they are slaves. So with husbands who are eternally finding 
fault with their wives. 

Chastity is the first virtue in man or woman, and the man who, 
however he may have strayed away, cannot be brought to the right 
path by a gentle and loving and chaste wife, is indeed very rare. 
This world is not yet as bad as that. I have heard much about brutal 
husbands all over the world and the impurity of men, but my experi- 
ence shows that there are quite as many brutal and impure women 
as men. 

If the women of America were as good and pure as their own con- 
stant assertions would lead a foreigner to believe, I am perfectly sat- 
isfied that there would not be one impure man in this country. With 
w^hom could men become impure? What brutality is there which 
purity and chastity cannot conquer? A good, chaste wife, who thinks 
of every other man except her own husband as her child and has the 



25 

attitude of a motlier toward all men, would have g^rown so great in 
the power of puritj^ that there would not be a single man, however 
brutal, who would not feel an atmosphere of holiness in her presence. 
Similarly eveiy husband must look upon all women, except his own 
wife, in the light of his own mother or daughter or sister. That man, 
again, Avho wants to be a teacher of religion must look upon every 
woman as his mother, and always behave toward her as such. 

The position of the mother is the highest in the world, as it is th& 
one place in which to learn and exercise the greatest unselfishness. 
The love of God is the only love that is higher than mother's love; 
all others are lower. It is the duty of the mother to think of her chil- 
dren first and then of herself. But, instead of that, if the parents are 
always thinking of themselves first, even in such small things as 
food, taking the best portions to themselves and letting the children 
take what they can, the result is always that the relation between 
parents and children becomes as the relation between the birds and 
their offspring, who, as soon as they are fledged, do not recognize any 
parents. Blessed, indeed, is the man whO' is able to look upon woman 
as the representative of the motherhood of God. Blessed, indeed, is 
the woman to whom man represents the fatherhood of God. Blessed 
are the children who look upon their parents as divinity manifested 
on earth. 

The only way to rise is by doing the duty that is in our hands 
now, and making ourselves stronger and going higher, until we reach 
the highest state. Nor is duty to be slighted. A man who does the 
lower work is not, therefore, a lower man than he Avho does the 
higher work; a man should not be judged by the nature of his duties, 
but by the manner in which he does them. His manner of doing them 
and power to do^ them is the test of a man. A shoemaker who can 
turn out a strong, nicev pair of shoes in the shortest time is a better 
man, according to his works, than a professor who talks nonsense 
every day of his life. 

A certain young Sanyasi went to a forest and there meditated 
and worshipped and practised Yoga for a long time. After twelve 
years of hard work and practice, he was one day sitting under a tree, 
w^hen some dry leaves fell upon his head. He" looked up and saw a 
crow and a crane fighting on the top of the tree, and they made him 
very angry. He said:— "What! You dare throw those dry leaves 
upon my head!" and as he looked upon them with anger a flash of 
fire burst from his head— the Yogi's power— and burnt the birds to 
ashes. He was very glad; he was almost overjoyed at this develop- 
ment of power; he could burn, at a. glance, the crow^ and the crane. 
After a time he had tO' go into the town to beg his bread. He came 
and stood at a door and said:— "Mother, give me food." A voice came 



26 

from inside the house:— "Wait a little, my son." The young man 
thought:— "You wretched woman, dare you make me wait! You do 
not know my power yet." While he was thinking this the voice came 
again:— "Boy, don't be thinking too much of yourself. Here is neither 
crow nor crane." He was astonished; still he had to wait. At last 
a woman came, and he fell at her feet and said:— "Mother, how did 
you know that?" She said:— "My boy, I do not know your Yoga or 
your practices. I am a common, everyday woman, but I made you 
wait because my husband is ill, and I was nursing him, and that was 
my duty. All my life I have struggled to do my duty. As a daughter, 
when I was unmarried, I did my duty, and now, when I am married, 
I ®till do my duty; that Is all the Yoga I pi^actice, and by doing my 
duty I have become illumined; thus, I could read your thoughts and 
Avhat you had done in the forest. But if you want to know something 
higher than this go to such and such a town and to the market, and 
there you w'ill find a butcher, and he will tell you something that you 
will be very glad to learn." The Sanyasi thought:— "Why go to that 
town and to a butcher." (Butchers are the lowest class in our coun- 
try; they are called Chandalas; they are not touched because they are 
butchers; they do the duty of scavengers, and so forth.) 

But after what he had seen his mdnd was opened a little, so he 
went, and when he came near the city he found the market, and there 
saw, at a distance, a big, fat butcher slashing away at animals, with 
big knives, fighting and bargaining with different people. The young 
man said, "Lord, help me, is this the man from whom I am going to 
learn? He is the incarnation of a demon, if he is anything." In the 
meantime this man looked up and said, "Swami, did that lady send 
you here? Take a seat until I have done my business." The Sanyasi 
thought, "What comes to me here?" but he took a seat and the man 
went on, and after he had finished all his selling and buying, took his 
money and said to the Sanysai, "Come here, sir; come to my home." 

'So they went there and the butcher gave him a seat and isaid, 
"Wait there. Then he went into the. house and there were his father 
and mother. He waished them and fed them and did all he could to 
please them, and then came and took a seat before the Sanyasi and 
said, "Now, sir, you are come here to see me; what can I do for you?" 
Then this great Sanysai asked him a few questions about the soul and 
God, and this butcher gave him a lecture which is a very celebrated 
book in India, the "Vyada Gita." It is one of the highest flights in 
the Vedanta, the highest flight of metaphysics. You have heard of 
the Bhagavad Gita, Krishna's sermon. When you have finished that 
you should read the "Vyada Gita," it is the extreme of Vedanta phil- 
osophy. When the butcher had finished the Sanysai was astonished. 
He said, "Why are you in that body, with such knowledge as yours? 



Why are you in a butcher's body, and doing such filthy, ugly work?" 
"My son," replied the Chandala, "no duty is ugly, and no duty is im- 
pure. My birth, circumstances and environments were there. In my 
boyhood I learned the trade; I am unattached, and I try to do my duty 
well. I try to do my duty as a householder, and I try to do all I can to 
make my father and mother happy. I neither know your Yoga, nor 
became a Snyasi; never went out of the world, nor into a forest, but 
all this has come to me through doing my duty in my position." 

There is a sage in India, a great Yogi, one of the most wonderful 
men I have seen in my life. He is a peculiar man; he will not teach 
any one; if you ask him a question he will not answer. It is too much 
for him to take the position of a teacher; he will not take it. If you 
ask a question, and if you wait for some days, in the course of conver- 
sation, he will bring the subject out himself, and wonderful light 
he will throw on it. He told me once the secret of work, and what he 
said was, 'Let the end and the means be joined into one, and that is 
the secret of work.' When you are doing work, do not think of any- 
thing beyond. Do it as worship, andl the highest worship, and devote 
your whole life to it for the time being. Thus, in this story, the 
butcher and the woman did their dutj^ with cheerfulness, and whole- 
heartedness, and willingness, and the result was that they became 
illuminated, clearly showing that the right performance of the duties 
of any station, and being unattached, lead to the highest. 



CHAPTER V. 

WB HELP OURSELVES, NOT THE WORLD. 

Our duty to otliers means helping others; doing good to the world. 
Why should we do good to the world ? Apparently to help the world, 
but really to help ourselves. We should always try to help the world; 
that should be the highest motive power in us; but, when we analyze 
it properly, we shall find that this world does not requite our help. 
This world was not made that you or I should come and help it. I 
once read a sermon in which was said:— "All this beautiful world is 
very good because it gives us time and opportunity to help others."" 
Apparently, it was a very beautiful sentiment, but, in one sense, it was 
a curse, for is it not a blasphemy to say that the world needs our 
help? We cannot deny that there is much misery in it; to go out and 
help others is, therefore, the highest motive power we have, although,, 
in the long run, we shall find that it is only helping ourselves. As a 
boy I had some white mice. They were kept in a little box and had 
little wheels made for them, and when' the mice tried to cross the 
wheels, the wheels turn and turn, and the mice never got anywhere. 
So with the world and our helping it. The only help is, that you get 
exercise. This world is neither good nor evil; each man manufactures 
a world fonhimself. If a blind man begins to think of it, it is either 
as soft or hard, or cold or hot. We are a mass^ of happiness or misery; 
w^e have seen that hundreds of times in our lives. As a rule, the 
young are optimistic and the old pessimistic. The young have all life 
before them, and the old are complaining; their day is gone; hundreds 
of desires, which they cannot fulfill, are struggling in their brain. 
Life is at an end for them. Both are foolish. This life is neither good 
nor evil. It is according to* the different states of mind in which we 
look at the w^orld. The most practical man w^ould neither call it good 
nor evil. Fire, by itself, is neither good nor evil. When it keeps us 
warm we say: — "How beautiful is fire!" When it burns our fingers 
we blame the fire. Still, it was neither good nor bad. As w^e use it, 
it produces that feeling of good or bad, and so is this world. It is 
perfect. By perfection is meant that it is perfectly fitted to meet its 



29 

«nds. We can all be perfectly sure that it will go on, and need not 
bother our heads wanting to help it. 

Yet we must do good; it is the highest motive power we have, 
knowing all the time it is a privilege to help. Do not stand on a ped- 
estal and take five cents and say, "Here, my poor man," but be grate- 
ful that the poor man is there, so that by giving to him you are able 
to help yourself. It is not the receiver that is blessed, but the giver. 
Be thankful that you are allowed to exercise your power of benev- 
olence and mercy in the world, and thus become pure and per- 
fect. All good acts tend to make us pure and perfect. 
What can we do at best? Build a hospital, make roads, or erect 
charity asylums ! We may organize a charity and collect two or three 
millions of dollars, build a hospital with one million, with the second 
give balls and drink champagne, and of the third let the officers steal 
half, and the rest may finally reach the poor, but what are these? 
One mighty wind, in five minutes, can break it all up. What shall we 
do then? One volcanic eruption can sweep away all our roads, and 
hospitals, and cities and buildings. Let us give up all this foolish 
talk of doing good to the world. It is not waiting for your or my 
help, yet we must work and constantly do good, because it is a blessing 
to ourselves. That is the only way we can become perfect. No 
beggar ever owed a single cent to us, we owe eveiything to him, be- 
cause he has allowed us to exercise our powers of pitj' and charity on 
him. It is entirely wrong to think that we have done, or can do good 
to the world, or have helped such and such people. It is a foolish 
thought, and all foolish thoughts bring misery. We think we have 
helped some one and expect him to thank us, and, because he does not, 
unhappiness comes to us. Why expect anything? If we were really 
unattached, we should escape all this pain of vain expectation, and 
could do good work in the world. Never will unhappiness or misery 
come through work done without attachment. This world will go on 
with its happiness and misery through eternity. 

There was a poor man who wanted some money, and, somehow, 
he had heard that if he could get hold of a ghost or some spirit, he 
could command him to bring money or anything he liked; so he was 
very anxious to get hold of a ghost. He went about searching for a 
man who would give him a ghost, and at last he found a sage, with 
gi-eat powers, and besought this sage to help him. The sage asked him 
what he would do with a ghost. "I want a ghost to work for me; 
teach me how to get hold of one, sir, I desire it very much," replied 
the man. But the sage said, "Don't disturl;* yourself, go home." The 
next day the man went again to the sage and began to weep and pray. 
''Give me a ghost; I must have a ghost, sir, to help me." At last the 
sage was disgusted, and said, "Take this charm, repeat this magic 



30 

word, and a gJiost will come, and whatever you say to this ^host he 
will do. But beware; they are terrible beings, and must be kept con- 
tinually busy. If you fail to give him work he will take your life." 
The man replied:— "That's easy; I can give him work for all his life." 
Then he went to a forest, and after long repetition of the magic word,, 
a huge ghost appeared before him, with big teeth, and said:— "I am 
a ghost. I have been conquered by your magic. But you must keep 
me constantly employed. The moment you stop I will kill you." The 
man said:— "Build me a palace," and the ghost said, "It is done; the 
palace is built." "Bring me money," said the man. "Here is your 
money," said the ghost. "Cut this forest down, and build a city in its 
place." "That is done," said the ghost; "anything more?" Now the 
man began to be frightened and said:— "I can give him nothing more 
to do; he does everything in a trice." The ghost said: — "Give me 
something to do or I will eat you up." The poor man could find no 
further occupation for him, and was frightened. So he ran and ran 
and at last reached the sage, and said, "Oh, sir, protect my life!" The 
sage asked him what was the matter, and the man replied: — "I have 
nothing to give the ghost to do. Everything I tell him to do he does 
in a moment, and he threatens to eat me up if I do not give him work." 
Just then the ghost arrived, saying, "I'll eat you up; I'll eat you up," 
and he would have swallowed the man. The man began to shake, and 
begged the sage to save his life. The sage said:— "I will find you a 
way out. Look at that dog with a, curly tail. Draw your sword 
quickly and cut the tail off and give it to the ghost to straighten out." 
The man cut off the dog's tail and gave it to the ghost, saying, 
"Straighten that out for me." The ghost took it and slowly and care- 
fully straightened it out, but as soon as he let go, it instantly curled 
up again. Once more he laboriously straightened it out, only to find it 
again curled up as soon as he attempted to let go of it. Again he 
patiently straightened it out, but as soon as he let it go, it curled up 
again. So he went on for days and days, until he was exhausted, and 
said, "I was never in such trouble before in my life. I am an old 
veteran ghost, but never before was I in such trouble. I will make 
compromise with you," he said to the man. "You let me off' and I will 
let you keep all I have given you and will promise not to harm you." 
The man was much pleased, and accepted the offer, gladly. 

This world is that dog's curly tail, and people have been striving to 
straighten it out for hundreds of years, but when they let go, it curls 
up again. How can it be otherwise? One must first know how to work 
without attachment, then he will not be a fanatic. When we know 
that this world is like a dog's curly tail and will never straighten, 
we shall not become fanatics. They can never do real Avork. If there 
were no fanaticism in the world it would make much more progress 



31 

than it does now. It is all silly nonsense to think that fanaticisjn 
makes for the progress of mankind. It is, instead, a retarding 
block, hy making hatred and anger, and causing people to fight 
each other, and making them unsympathetic. Whatever we do or 
possess we think the best in the world, and those things we do not 
possess are of no yalue. So, always remember this curly tail of the 
dog whenever you have a tendency to become a fanatic. You need 
not worry or make yourself sleepless; the world will go on. When 
you have avoided fanaticism then alone will you work well. It is the 
level-headed man, the calm man, of good judgment and cool nerves, 
of great sympathy and love, who does good work. The fanatic has 
no sympathy. 



CHAPTER VI. 

NOX-ATTACHMENT IS COMPLETE SELF-ABNEGATION. 

Just as every action tbat emanates from us comes back to 
ns, even so our actions may act on other people and theirs on us. 
Perhaps all of you have observed it as a fact ithat when persons do 
evil actions they become more and more evil, and when they begin 
to do good they become stronger and stronger and do good all the 
time. This multiplication of action cannot be explained on any other 
ground, except that we can act and readt upon each other. To 
take a simile from physical science, when I am doing a certain 
action my mind is in a certain form of vibration; all minds under 
similar circumstances would have the tendency to be affected by my 
mind. If there are different musical instruments in one room all 
of you have noticed that if one is struck the others have the ten- 
dency to vibrate the same note. So, taking this as an illustration, 
it shows that the instruments had each the same tension and would 
be affected alike by the same impulse. So all minds that have the 
same tension will be equally affected by the same thought. Of 
course, it will vary, according to the distance, but it will be open 
to be affected. Suppose I am doing an evil act, my mind is in a 
certain state of vibration, and all minds in the universe, in the 
similar state, will have the possibility of being affected by my mind. 
So, when I am doing a good action, my mind has another state 
of tensiion, and all minds similarly stringed will have the pos- 
sibility of being affected, and this power of affection will be more 
or less according to the tension. 

Following this simile further, it is quite possible that, just as 
light waves may travel for millions of years before they reach their 
object, so these thought waves may travel hundreds of years, until 
they meet with an object with which they vibrate in unison. It is 
quite possible, therefore, that this atmosphere of ours is full of such 
thought pulsations, both good and evil. Every thought projected 
from every brain goes on pulsating, as it were, until it meets an ob- 
ject. Any mind which is opening itself to receive some of these 



33 

will receive them immediately. So, when a man is doing evil ac- 
tion, he has brought his mind to a certain state of tension, and all 
the waves corresponding to that state of tension, which are al- 
ready in the atmosphere, will struggle to enter his mind. 
That is why an evil doer generally goes on doing more and more 
evil. His action is intensified. Such, also, will be the case with 
the doer of good; he will open himself to all the good waves that are 
in the atmosphere, and his good actions will 'be intensified. We 
run, therefore, a twofold danger in doing evil; first, we open our- 
selves to all the evil influences surrounding us; secondly, we create 
evil which will affect others. It may be possible that our evil ac- 
tions will affect others hundreds of years hence. In doing evil we in- 
jure ourselves and others also. In doing good we do good to ourselves 
and to others, and, like all other forces in man, these good and evil 
forces gather strength from outside. 

According to Karma Yoga, the action one has done cannot be de- 
stroyed until it has borne fruit; no power in nature can stop it 
from bearing its results. If I do an evil action, I musit suffer for it; 
there is no power in this universe to stop or stay it. So, if I do a 
good action there is no power in the universe which can stop its 
bearing good results. The cause must have its effect; nothing can 
restrain it. Now comes a very fine and serious question about 
Karma Yoga — that these actions of ours, either good or evil, are in- 
timately connected with each other. We cannot put a line of de- 
marcation and isay this action is entirely good and this entirelj'" 
evil. There is no action which does not bear good and evil at the 
same time. To take the nearest example: I am talking to you, and 
some of you, perhaps, think I am doing good, and at the same 
time I am, perhaps, killing thousands of microbes in the atmosphere; 
I am doing evil to something else. When it is very near to us and 
affects those we know we say it is very good action, if it affects 
them in a good manner. For instance, you may call my speaking to 
you very good, but the microbes will not; the microbes you do not 
see, but yourselves you do see. The affection to you is obvious, 
but that to the microbes is not obvious. And so, if we analyze our 
evil actions, we will find that some good was done somewhere. "He 
who in good action sees that there is something evil in it and who in 
the midst of evil sees that there is something good in it somewhere 
has known the secret of work." 

But what follows from it? That, however we may try, there 
cannot be any action which is perfectly pure, or any which is per- 
fectly impure, taking purity or impurity in the sense of injury or non- 
injury. We cannot breathe or live without injuring others, and 
every bit of food we eat is taken from another's mouth; our very lives 



34 

are crowding out 'some other lives. It may be men, or animals, or 
small microbes, but some one we have to crowd out. That being 
the case, it naturally follows that perfection can never be attained 
by work. We may work through all eternity, but there will be no 
way out of this intricate maze; you may work on, and on, and on;, 
there will be no end. 

The second point to consider is. What is the end of work? We 
find the vast majority of people in every country believing that there 
will be a time when this world will become perfect, when there will 
be no disease, or death, or unhappiness, or wickedness! That is a 
Very good idea, a very good motive power for the ignorant, but if we 
think for a moment we wall find thalt on the very face of it it can- 
not be so. How can it be, seeing that good and bad are the ob- 
verse and reverse of the same coin? How can jovl have good without 
evil at the same time? What is meant by perfection? A perfect 
life is a contradiction in terms. Life itself is a state of continuous 
struggle between ourselves and everything outside. Every moment 
we are fighting with external nature, and if we are defeated our life 
will have to go. It is a continuous struggle for food. If food fails 
we die. Life is not a simple effect, but a compound effect. This 
compound struggle between something inside and the external 
world is what we call life. So, on the very face of it, when this 
struggle ceases, there will be an end of life. 

What is meant by this ideal happiness is that this struggle will 
cease altogethcT. But then life will cease, and the struggle can. only 
cease when life has ceased. Then, again, before we have attained 
to one-thousandth part of it, this earth will have cooled down, 
and we will not be. So thiS' millennium cannot /be in this world, if it 
can be anywhere else. Every act of charity, every thought of sym- 
pathy, every action of help, every good deed, is taking so much 
away from our little selves and making us think of ourselves the least 
and, therefore, is good. Here we find that the Gnani, or Bhakta, or 
Karmi, all come to one point. The highest ideal is eternal and entire 
self-abnegation, where there is no "I," but is all thou; and consciously, 
or unconsciously. Karma Yoga leads to that. It is the basis of all 
morality; you may extend it to men, or animals, or angels, but it is the 
one basic idea, the one fundamental principle running through all 
ethical systems. 

You will find various classes of men in this world. First, there 
are the God-men, who are abnegating themselves entirely and will 
do good to others, even at the sacrifice of their own lives. These 
are the highest of men. If there are a hundred of such in any coun- 
try, that country need not despair. Then there are good men, who 
do good to others so long as it does not injuTe themselves; and there 



35 

is a third class, the dliabolical people, who, to do good to them- 
selves, would injure others. It is said there is a fourth class of 
people, who will injure others for injury's sake. Just as there are 
at one pole of existence the good men, who will do good for good's 
sake, so, at the other pole, there are others who will injure others, just 
for the sake of injury. They do not gain anything thereby, but it is 
their nature. So we see that the man who sacrifices himself to do 
good to others, the man with the highest self-abnegation, is the 
greatest man. 

Here are two Sanskrit words. One is called "Pravritti," revolv- 
ing towards," and the other is "Nivritti," revolving away. The 
"revolving towards" is what we call the world, 'T and mine," those 
who are always enriching that "me" by wealth, and moneys, and 
power, and name, and fame, gra-sping, always wanting to accumu- 
late everything towards one centre, and that centre "myself." That 
is the "pravritti," the natural tendency of every human being; tak- 
ing everything from everywhere and heaping it around one centre, 
and that centre is his own sweet self. When this begins to break, 
when it is "nivritti," "going away from," then begin morality and 
religion. Both "pravritti" and "nivritti" are work, but one is evil 
w^ork, and the other is good work. This "nivritti" is the basis of all 
morality and all religion, and the very perfection of it Is entire self- 
abnegation, readiness to sacrifice mind, body and everything for 
another being. When a man has reached to that state he has at- 
tained to the perfection of Karma Yoga. This is the highest result 
of good works. If a man has not studied a single philosophy, if he 
does not believe in any God, and never has, if he has never prayed 
once in his whole life, but, if the simple power of good actions has 
brought him to that state where he is ready to give up his life and 
all else for others, he has arrived at the same point to which the 
religious man will come through his prayers and the philosopher 
through his knowledge, and so you find that the philosopher, and the 
worker, and the devotee, all meet at one point, and that one point is 
self-abnegation. However the systems of philosophy may differ 
in opinion, all mankind stands in reverence and awe before the man 
who is ready to sacrifice himself for others. No more question of 
creed, or doctrine— even men who are very much opposed to all re- 
ligious ideas, when they see one of these acts of complete self-sac- 
rifice, must revere it. Have you not seen even a mosx bigoted Chris- 
tian, when he reads Edwin Arnold's "Light of Asia," stand in rev- 
erence of Buddha, who preached no God, preached nothing but self- 
sacrifice? The only thing is that the bigot does not know that his 
own aim and end in life is exactly the same. The worshipper, by 
keeping constant: the idea of God and a surrounding of good, comes 



36 

to the same point at last, "Thy will be done," and keeps nothing for 
himself. That is self-abnegation. The philosopher, with his knowl- 
edge, sees that the seeming self is a delusion and easily gives it 
up; yet it is self-abnegation, go Karma, Bhakta and Gnana all meet 
here, and this is what was meant by all the great preachers of 
ancient times, when they taught that God is not the world. There 
is one thing which is world and another which is God, and this is 
very true; what they mean by the world is selfishness. Unselfishness 
is God. One may live on a throne, in a golden palace, and be perfectly 
unselfish, and he is in God. Another may live in a hut, and wear 
rags, and have nothing in the world, yet, if he is selfish, he is in- 
tensely merged in the world. 

To come back to one of our points, we say that we cannot do 
good without doing some evil, or evil without doing some good. 
Knowing this, how can we work? A solution is found in the Gita, 
the theory of non-attachment, to be attached to nothing. Know 
that you are separated entirely from this world; that you are in the 
world, but whatever you are doing, you are not doing for your 
•own sake. Any action that you do for yourself will bring an effect 
on you. If it is a good action you will have to take the good effect, 
and, if bad, you will have to take the (bad effect; but any action that 
iS' not done for your own sake, whatever it be, will have no effect on 
you. Even if he kill the whole universe, he is neither killed nor 
is killing, when he knows he is not acting for himself at all.. There- 
fore, Karma Yoga teaches, do not give up the world; live in the 
world, take it in as much as you can, but for enjoyment's sake — not 
at all. Enjoyment should not be the goal. First kill yourself and 
then take the whole world as yourself, "the old man must die." 
This old man is this selfish idea that the whole world is made for our 
enjoyment. Foolish parents teach their children to pray, "O Lord, 
thou createst thisi suni for me and this moon for me," as if the Lord 
had nothing else to do than to create everything for these babies. 
That is only heaping fuel on fire. Do ntot teach your children such 
nonsense. Then, again, there are people who are secondarily foolish; 
they teach us that all these animals were created for us to kill and 
eat, and that this univrse is for the enjoyment of men. That is all 
foolishness. A tiger might say, "Man was created for me," and 
pray, "O Lord, how wicked are these men, who do not come and put 
themselves before us to be eaten; they are breaking your law." If 
the world is created for us we are also created for the world. That 
this world is created for our enjoyment is the idea that holds us 
down. This world is not for our sake; millions pass out of it every 
year; the world does not feel it; millions of others have been sup- 
plied. Just as the world is for us, we are for the world. 



37 

To work, therefore, first give up the idea of attachment. Sec- 
ondly, do not mix in the fray; hold yourself as a witness and go on 
working. A sage has said, "Look upon your children as your nurse 
does." The nurse will take your baby and fondle it and play with it 
and behave as gently as if it were her own child, but as soon as you 
give her notice she is ready to start off with her baggage from the 
house. Everything is forgotten; it would not give the ordinary nurse 
the least pang to leave your children and take up other children. 
Even so be with your own. You are the nurse, and, if you believe 
in God, believe that these are all His. The greatest weakness gen- 
erally insinuates itself as the greatest good and strength. This ia 
weakness to think that some one depends on me, and I can do good 
to somebody. This pride is the mother of all our attachment, and 
throug'h this attachment comes all our pain. We must inform our 
mind that no one in this universe depends upon us; not one beggar 
depends on our charity; not one soul on our kindness; not one on 
our help. They are all helped and will be helped if millions of us 
were not here. The course of nature will not stop for you and me; it 
is only a blessed privilege to you and me that we are allowed in the 
shape of help to others, to educate ourselves. This is one lesson to 
learn, through the whole of our lives, and when we have learned 
it fully we shall never be unhappy; we can go and mix anywhere 
and everywhere. This very year some of our friends may have died. 
Is the world waiting for them? Is its current stopped? It goes on. 
So drive out, thrash out of your mind, this idea that you have to do 
something for the world; the world does not require iiny help from 
you. When you have trained your nerves and your muscles to this 
idea there will be no reaction in the form of pain. When you give 
something to a man and expect nothing— do not expect the man to 
be grateful — it will not tell upon you, because you never expected 
anything, never thought you had a right to anything : you gave 
what he deserved; his own Karma got it for him; your Karma 
made you the caiTier. Why should you be proud of giving some- 
thing? You are the porter who carried the money, and the 
world deserved it by its own Karma. Where is the reason for 
pride? There is nothing very great in what you give to the world. 
When you have got the feeling of non-attachment there will be 
neither good nor evil work for you. It is only selfishness that makes, 
the difference of good and evil. It is a very hard thing to under- 
stand, but you will come to learn in time that nothing in the uni- 
verse has power over you until you admit it. Nothing has power 
over the Self of man until the Self becomes a fool and obeys the 
power. So, by non-attachment, you deny the power of anything 
to act upon you. It is very easy to say that nothing has the right to- 



38 

f 

act upon you until you allow It, but wliat is the sign of the man 

who really does not allow anything to work upon him, who is neither 
happy nor unhappy, when he is acted upon hy the external world? 
The sign is that it makes no change in his mind; in good fortune or 
in ill he remains the same. 

There was a great sage called Vyasa. This Vyasa was the 
writer of the Vedanta philosophy, a holy man. His father had tried 
to become a very p.erfect man and failed; his grandfather tried, 
failed. His great-grandfather tried, failed. He himself did not 
succeed perfectly, but his son, Shuka, was born perfect. He taught 
this son, and, after teaching him himself, he sent him to the court 
of King Janaka. There was a great king called Janaka Videha. 
Videha meians "outside fthe body." Although a king, he had entirely 
forgotten that he was a body; he was a spirit all the time. This 
boy was sent to be taught by him. The King knew that Vyasa' s 
son was coming to him to learn, so he made certain arrangements 
beforehand, and when this boy presented himself at the gates of the 
palace the guards itook no notice of him whatsover. They only gave 
him a place to sit, and he sat there for three days and nights, no- 
body speaking to him, nobody asking who he was or whence he was. 
He was the son of this great sage; his father was honored by the 
whole country, and he himself was a most respectable person, yet the 
low, vulgar guards of the palace would take no notice of him. After 
that, suddenly, the ministers of the King and all the big officials 
came there and received him with the greatest honors. They took 
him in and showed him into splendid rooms, gave him the most 
fragrant baths and wonderful dresses, and for eight days they kept 
him there in all kinds of luxury. That face did not change; he was 
the same in the midst of this luxury as at the door. Then he was 
brought before the King. The King was on his throne, music was 
playing, and dancing and other. amusements going on. The King 
gave him a cup of milk, full to the brim, and asked him to go seven 
times round the hall without spilling a drop. The boy took the cup 
and proceeded in the midst of this music and the beautiful faces. 
Seven times he went round, and no't a drop of milk was spilled. The 
boy's mind could not be ajttracted by anything in the world, unless 
he allowed it. And when he brought the cup to the King, the King 
said to him, "What your father has taught you and what you have 
learned yourself I only repeat; you have known the truth; go 
home." 

Thus, the man that has practised control over himself cannot be 
acted upon by anything outside; there is no more slavery for him. 
The mind has become free; such a man is alone fit to live in the 
world. We generally find men of two opinions. To those who have 



39 

not controlled their own minds this world is either full of evil or a 
mixture of good and evil. This very w^orld will become an optimistic 
woiM when we have become masters of our own minds. Nothing will 
"work upon us as good or evil; we shall find everything harmonious. 
Some men who begin by saying the world is a hell will end by saying 
it is heaven. If we are genuine Karma Yogis and want to train our- 
selves to this state, wherever we may begin we shall end in perfect 
self-abnegation, and as soon as this seeming self has gone this 
Whole world, which at first appears to us to be filled with evil, will 
appear to be heaven and full of blessedness. Its very atmosphere 
will be blessed; every human face will be good. This is the goal and 
end of Karma Yoga, and this is perfection. So, you see, these 
various Yogas do not conflict with each other; each one goes to the 
same goal and makes us perfect, but each one has to be practised. 
The whole secret is in practising. First hear, then think, and then 
practise. This is true of every Yoga. You have first to hear about 
it and understand what it is, and many things you do not under- 
stand, by constant hearing, w^ll be made clear. It is hard to under- 
stand everything at once. The explanation of everything is in your- 
self. No one was ever taught by another; each one of us has to teach 
Taimself. The external teacher is only the suggestiion which rouses 
the internal teacher to understand things. Then things w^ill be made 
■clearer by the power of perception, and we shall realize them in our 
own souls, and that will become the intense power of will. First feel- 
ing, then it becomes willing, and out of that willingness will come the 
tremendous powder of work that will go through every vein, and 
nerve, and muscle, until the whole mass of your body is changed into 
that unselfish Yoga of work, and the result will be perfect self-ab- 
negation; utter unselfishness. It does not depend on any dogma, or 
■doctrine, or belief; either Christian, or Jew, or Gentile, it does not 
matter. Are you unselfish? That is the question. If you are you 
will be perfect without reading a single religious book, without going 
into a single church or temple. "Fools alone say that work and phil- 
osophy are different, not the learned." The learned know that, 
though apparently different from each other, they at least come to the 
same goal, and that is perfection. 



CHAPTER VII. 

FREEDOM. 

In additioii to meaning work, we have seen tliat the word Karma- 
also means causation. Any work, any action, any tliougiit, that pro- 
duces an effect is called a Karma. This law of Karma means the law 
of causation; wheresoeA^er there is a cause, an effect must he produced; 
it cannot he resisted, and that law of Karma, according to our philos- 
ophy, is pervading the w^hole universe. Whatever we see, or feel, or 
do; wTiatever action there is anywhere in the universe, is but the eft'ect 
of past work on the one hand, and, on the other hand, becomes the 
cause, and produces another effect. It is necessary, together with this, 
to consider the word law\ We see psychologically that law is the ten- 
dency of a series to repeat itself. When we see one event followed by 
another, or sometimes happening simultaneously, we expect this will 
always follow. A series of phenomena become associated in our mind 
in a sort of invariable order, so that what we see at one time im- 
mediately refers to other facts in the mind. One idea, or, according to 
our psychology, one wave, produced in the mind stuff, always produces 
many similar ones. This is the law of association, and causation is 
only a part of this law of pervasive association. In the external world 
the idea of law is the same as in the internal world — the expectation 
that one phenomenon will be followed by another, and that the series 
will repeat itself, so far as we can see. Really speaking, therefore, law 
does not exist in nature. Practically, it is an error to say that gravita- 
tion exists in the earth, or that there is any law existing anywhere in 
nature. Law is the method, the manner in w^Mch our mind grasps a 
series of phenomena; it is all in the mind. Certain phenomena hap- 
pening together, followed by the conviction with which our mind 
grasps the whole series, is what iwe call law. 

The next question will be what we mean by law being universal. 
Our universe is that portion of existence which is cut off by what the 
Sanskrit psychologists call "nama Rupa" (name and form). This uni- 
verse is only one part of that infinite existence, which has been thrown 
into a peculiar mould, or tfiat is composed of name and form, and 
when it fills that mould that part of the sum total of existence which; 



41 

fills the mould is what is called our universe. It necessarily follows 
that law is only possible within this universe; beyond that there can 
not be any law. When we speak of this universe we only mean that 
portion of existence which is limited by our mind; the universe of 
senses, which we can see, feel, touch, hear, think of, imagine; that 
poition of the universe alone is under law, but beyond that it cannot 
be under law, because causation does not extend beyond that. Any- 
thing beyond the range of our mind and our senses is not bound by 
the law of causation, as there is no association beyond the senses, and 
no causation without association of ideas. It is only when it gets 
moulded into name and form that existence obeys the law of causa- 
tion, and is said to be under law, because law has its essence in 
causation. Therefore, we see at once that there cannot be any free 
will; the very w^ords are a contradiction, because will is what we 
know, and everything that we know is within our universe, and every- 
thing within our universe has been moulded into name and form, and 
everything that we know, or can possibly know, must obey causation, 
and that which obeys the laws of causation cannot be free. It is acted 
upon by other agents, and becomes cause in turn, and so on. But that 
which became converted into the will, which was not the will, but 
which, when it fell into this mould, became converted into the human 
will, is free, and when this will gets out of this mould of causation 
it will be free again. From freedom it comes, and becomes moulded 
into this bondage, and it gets out and goes back to freedom. 

The question was raised from whom this universe comes, in whom 
it rests, and to whom it goes; and the answer was given, from that 
freedom it comes, it rests in bondage, and it goes back into that free- 
dom. So, when we speak of man as that being who is manifesting, 
only one part is man; this body and this mind which we see are only 
one part of the whole man, only one spot of that infinite being which is. 
man. This whole universe is only one speck of the infinite being, and 
all our laws, and our bondages, our joys and our sorrows, our happi- 
nesses, and our expectations, are only within this small universe, all 
our progression and digression are within this small space. So you 
see how childish it is to expect a continuation of this universe, to ex- 
pect and hope to go to heaven, which means a repetition of this world 
.that we have. You see at once that it is an impossible and childish 
desire to make the whole infinite universe conform to that existence 
which we know. So. when a man says he will have this thing again 
a^nd again which he is having now, or, as I sometimes say, when he 
asks for a comfortable religion, you may know that he has become so 
degenerate that he cannot think of anything higher than he is now, 
just his little present surroundings. He has forgotten his infinite 
nature, and his whole idea is confined to these little joys and sorrow?, 



42 

and heart jealousies of the moment. He thinks this is the infinite, 
and not only so, he will not let it go. He clings on desperately unto 
Thrishna, the thirst after life. There are millions of happinesses, and 
beings, and laws, and progresses, and causations all acting apart 
from what we know, and this is tout one section of our nature. 

To acquire freedom we have to get beyond this universe; it cannat 
be found here. To acquire perfect equilibrium cannot be in this uni- 
verse, nor in heaven, or earth, or anywhere where thoughts can go, 
or the mind, where the senses can feel, see, hear or touch, or which 
we can imagine. No such place can give that, because it would be all 
within our universe, and that universe must be bound by causation. It 
may be much finer than this; there are places that are much finer than 
this earth of ours, where enjoyments will be keener, but it will be in 
the universe, and therefore in bondage, so we will have to go beyond, 
and real religion begins there, where this little universe ends. These 
little joys, and sorrows, and knowledges end there, and the real begins. 
Until we can give up this thirst after life, this strong attachment to 
this one moment of existence, we have no hope of catching even a 
glimpse of that infinite freedom beyond. It stands then that there is 
only one way to attain to that freedom, which is the goal of mankind, 
and that is by giving up this little life, giving up this little universe, 
:giving up this earth, giving up heaven, giving up the roody, giving up 
the mind, giving up everything. If we can give up this little universe 
of the senses, or the mind, immediately we shall be free. The only 
way to come out of bondage is to go beyond law, go beyond causation, 
and wherever this universe exists, there causation prevails. 

But it is a most diflicult thing to give up this universe; few ever 
attain to that. There are two ways in cur books. One is called the 
"neti neti" (not this, not this), the negative, and the other is called the 
"iti iti" (this, this), the positive wslj. The negative way is the most 
■difficult. It is only possible to the very highest, exceptional minds, 
gigantic will powers, who simply stand and say "No, I will not have 
this," and the mind and body obey, and they come out. But such 
people are very rare, and the vast majority of mankind choose the 
positive way, the way through this world, making use of all the bon- 
dages themselves to break those bondages. That is also giving up, 
only slowly and gradually, by knowing things, enjoying things, and 
thus getting experience, and knowing the nature of things, until the 
mind lets them go away and becomes unattached. The one is by rea- 
soning and the other is through work. The first is for the Gnani, and 
is by refusing to work, and the second is Karma Yoga, by working. 
Every one must work in the universe. Only those who are perfectly 
satisfied with the Self, whose desires do not go beyond the Self, whose 
mind never strays out of the Self, to whom that Self is all in all, do not 



43 

work. The rest must all work, A current rushing down stream of 
its own nature, falls into a hollow and makes a whirlpool, and, after 
running a little in that whirlpool, it emerges again in the form of the 
free current. So each human life is like that current. It gets into the 
whirl, gets involved in this world of name and form, whirls round a 
little, crj^ing, my father, my brother, my name, my fame, and at last 
•emerges, and regains its freedom. The whole universe is doing that, 
whether it knows it or not, consciously or unconsciously. Evei*y one 
is having this experience, and in the long run getting out of this 
whirlpool. 

But wliat is Karma Yoga? Knowing the secret of work. We see 
that the whole universe is working. For what? For salvation, for 
liberty, consciously or unconsciously, from the atom to the highest 
being; working from that one end, liberty for the mind, for the body, 
for the spirit, for everything; always trying to get freedom, flying 
away from bondage. The sun, moon, earth, the planets, all are trying 
to fly from bondage. Karma Yoga tells us the secret, the method of 
work. Instead of being knocked about in this universe, and after long 
4elay and thrashing, getting to know things a-s they are. Karma Yoga 
teaches us the secret of work, the method of work, the organizing 
ipower of work. The vast mass of energy may be spent in vain, if we 
do not know how to utilize it. Karma Yoga makes a science of it; you 
learn how to utilize all the workings of this world. Work is inevitable, 
it must be, but work to the highest purpose. Karma Yoga makes us 
admit that this world is a world of five minutes ; that it is something 
we have to pass through; that that freedom is not here, but we must 
go beyond to come to freedom. To find the way out we will have to 
go through it slowly and surely. There msij be those exceptional per- 
sons about whom I just spoke, who can stand aside and give it up, as 
a snake casts off its skin and stands aside and looks at it; there are 
some of these exceptional beings; but for the rest of mankind, they 
- have to slowly go through it, and Karma Yoga shows to the world the 
process, the secret, the method of doing it to the best advantage. 

What does it say? "Work thou incessantly, but give up all at- 
tachment to. work." Do not identify yourself with anything. Hold 
your mind free. All this that you see, the pains and the miseries, are 
but conditions of this world; poverty and wealth, and happiness, are 
but momentary; they do not belong to our nature at all. Our nature 
is far beyond miseiy, or happiness, beyond everything of the senses, 
beyond the imagination; and yet we must go on working all the time. 
"Misery comes through attachment, not through work." As soon as 
we identify ourselves with the work we feel miserable, but if we do 
not identifv ourselves with it we do not feel that misery. If a beauti- 



44 

fill picture belonging to another is burned a man does not become 
miserable, but when his own picture is burned how miserable he 
feels! Why? Both were beautiful pictures, perhaps copies of the 
same original, but in one case misery is felt and not in the other. It 
is because in one case he identifies himself with the picture, and not 
in the other. This "I and mine" causes the whole misery. With pos- 
session came selfishness, and selfishness brought misery. Every act 
of selfishness or thought of selfishness make us attached to something 
behind, and immediately we are made slaves. Each wave in the 
chitta that says "I and mine," immediately puts a chain round us 
and makes, us slaves, and the more we say "I and mine" the more 
slavery grows, the more misery increases. Therefore, Karma Yoga 
tells us to enjoy all the pictures in the world, but not to identify 
ourselves with them. Never say "mine." W^henever we say a thing is 
mine, misery will immediately come. Do not even say "My child" in 
your mind. Enjoy the child, but do not say "mine." If you do, then 
will come the misery. Do not say, "my house," do not saj "my body." 
The whole difficulty is there. The body is neither j^ours nor mine nor 
anybody's. These bodies are coming and going by the laws of nature, 
but we are free, standing as witness. This body is no more free than 
a picture, or the wall. Why should we attach ourselves to a body? 
If somebody paints a picture, he does it and passes away. Why be 
attached to it? Let it pass. Do not project that tentacle of selfish- 
ness, "I will possess it." As soon as that is projected misery will 
begin. 

So the Karma Yogi says, first destroy the tendency to project this 
tentacle of selfishness, and when you have the power of checking 
that, hold it in, do not allow the mind to get into that sort of wave. 
Then go out into the world and work as much as you can. Mix 
everywhere; go where you please; you will never be touched. Like 
the lotus leaf in water, the water cannot touch it; so will you be. This 
is called "vairaghyam," the law of Karma Yoga, non-attachment. I 
have just told you that without non-attachment there cannot be any 
Yoga. It is the basis of all the Yogas, and this is the real meaning of 
non-attachment; the man who gives up living in houses, and wearing 
fine clothes, and eating good food, and goes into the desert, msiy be a 
most attached person. His only possession, his own body, may become 
everything to him, and he is struggling for his body. Non-attachment 
does not mean Avhat we do in our external body, but it is in the mind; 
this connecting link of "I and mine" is in the body. If we have not 
this link with the body, and with things of the senses, we are non- 
attached, wherever we be. A man may be on a throne and perfectly 
non-attached; another man may be in rags and still very much at- 
tached. First, we attain to this non-attachment, and then we work 



45 

incessantly. The Karma Yogi gives method to help ns in giving up 
this attachment. It is hard to give it up. 

Here are the two ways of giving up all attachment. The one is 
for those who do not believe in God, or in outside help. They are left 
to their own devices; they have simply to work with their own will, 
the power of the mind, that "I must be non-attached," and with the 
power of discrimination. For those who believe in God, it is less 
difficult. They give up the fruits of work unto the Lord, and then go 
to work and are never attached to the results. Whatever they see, 
feel, hear, do, is for Him. Whatever good work we do, let us not 
take any praise to ourselves. It is the Lord's; give up the fruits unto 
Him. The grandest works that we do in our lives, never let us think 
that we shall receive the benefits thereof, or that we have done a good 
work. Let us be at peace, perfect peace, with ourselves, and give up 
our whole body and mind and everything as an eternal sacrifiee. 
Instead of the sacrifice of pouring oblations into the fire, make this 
one great sacrifice day and night — the sacrifice of the little self. Day 
and night renounce the seeming self until it becomes a habit, until it 
gets into the blood, the nerves, the brain, and the whole body is every 
moment obedient to this idea. Then we can go out anywhere, nothing 
will touch us. Go into the midst of the battle field, with roaring 
cannon and the din of war, and we shall be free and at peace. 

Karma Yoga teaches us dutj^ as on the lower plane; each one of us 
must do his duty. This is my duty, and that is my duty. Yet we see 
that this duty is the one great cause of misery. It becomes a disease 
with us; drags us ever forward. It clutches hold of us and makes our 
whole life miserable. It is the bane of human life. "This duty; this 
idea of duty is the mid-day summer sun which scorches the innermost 
soul of mankind." Look at those poor slaves to duty. Duty leaves 
them no time to think of anything else, no time to say prayers, no time 
to bathe. Duty is ever on them. They go out and work. Duty is on 
them. They come home and think of the work for next day. Duty is 
on them I It is living a slave's life, at last dropping down in the street 
and dying in harness, like a horse. This' is duty as it is understood. 
The only duty is to be unattached and to work as free beings. Blessed 
are we that we/ are here. We serve our time; whether we do it ill or 
well, who knows ? If we do it well, we do not get the fruits. If we do 
it ill, neither do we get care. Be at rest, be free, and work. This is a 
very hard thing to attain. How easy it is to interpret slavery as 
duty— the mOki*bid attachment of flesh for flesh as duty! Men go out 
into the world and struggle and fight for money. Ask them why they 
do it. They say:— "It is a duty." It is the absurd greed for gold, and 
they want to cover it with a few flowers. 

What is duty, after all? All duty is behind; it is this impulsation 



46 

of the flesh, our attaciiment; and when an attachment has been estab- 
lished, we call it duty. For instance, in countries where there is no 
marriagre, there is no duty between husband and wife; when marriage 
comes and husband and wife live together, they live together on ac- 
count of flesh attachment, and that becomes settled after generations,, 
and when it becomes settled it becomes a duty. It is a sort of chronic 
disease. When it is acute we call it a disease, when it is chronic we 
call it nature. It is a disease. So when attachment becomes chronic 
we baptize i't with the high sounding name of duty. We strew flowers 
upon it, trumpets yound, sacred texts are said over it, and then the 
whole world fights, and each one robs the other for this duty's sake. 
Duty is good; it checks brutality to a certain extent. To the lowest 
men, who cannot have any other ideal, it is of some good, but those 
who want to be Karma Yogis must throw this idea of duty overboard. 
There is no duty for you and me. Whatever you have to give to the 
world, give, but not as a duty. Do not take any thought of that. Be 
not compelled. Why should you be compelled ? Everything'that you 
do under compulsion is attachment. Why should you have any duty? 
You have no duty under the sun. If you want reward you must also 
have punishment; the only way to get out of the punishment is to give 
up the reward. The only way of getting out of misery is by giving 
up the idea of happiness, because these two' are linked to each other. 
On one side happiness, on the other misery. On one side life, on the 
other death. The only way to get beyond death is to give up life; not. 
to care for it. Life and death are the same thing, looked at from 
different points. So the idea of happiness without misery, or life with- 
out death is very good for school boys and children, but the thinker 
sees that it is a contradiction of terms and gives up both. Seek no 
praise, no reward, for anything you do. It is a very hard task. No 
sooner do we do a good action; than we begin to desire credit for it. No 
sooner do we give money to some charity than we want to see our 
names in the papers. Misery must come as the result of such desires. 
The greatest men in the world have passed away unknown. The 
Buddhas and the Christs that you see are but second degree men in 
comparison with them. Hundreds of them have lived in every 
country, working silently. Silently they pass away, and in time 
their thoughts find expression in Buddhas or Christs, and the latter 
become known to us. The highest men did.not seek to get any name 
or fame from their knowledge. Their whole nature shrank from it. 
They are the pure Sattvikis, who can never make any stir, but melt 
down in love. 

Next in order come men with more Rajas, or activity, combative 
natures, who take up the ideas of the perfect ones and preach them to 
the world. These highest ones silently collect ideas and the others. 



47 

the Buddhas and Christs, go from place to place preaching and work- 
ing. The highest men are calm, silent and unknown. They are the 
men who really know the power of thought; they are sure that even 
if they go into a cave and close up the door, simply think five thoughts 
and pass away, these five thoughts will live through eternity. Thej^ 
will penetrate through the mountains and cross oceans, and travel 
through the world, and will enter into some brain and raise up some 
man who will give expression to these thoughts. These men are too 
near the Lord to become active and fight, w^orking, struggling, preach- 
ing, and doing good to humanity. The active workers, however good, 
have still a little remnant of ignorance. When our nature has yet 
some impurities left, then alone can we work. The highest men can- 
not work. "Those whose whole soul is gone into the Self, those whose 
desires are confined in the Self, who have become ever associated with 
the Self, for them there is no work." So these are the highest of man- 
kind, who cannot work; but aside from these, every one has to work. 
But never think you can help the least thing in this universe. You 
can not. You only help yourself in this gymnasium of the world. 
This is the attitude of work. If you work in this way; if you always 
remember that it is a privilege which has been given you, you will 
never be attached. This world goes on. Millions like you and me 
think we are great people in the world, but we die, and in five 
minutes the world has forgotten us. Give up all fruits of work; do 
good for good's sake; then alone will come perfect non-attachment. 
The bonds of the heart will break, and we shall reap perfect freedom. 
This is the secret of Karma. 



CHAPTER VIII. 

THE IDEAL OF KARMA YOGA. 

The idea is that we are to reach the same goal by different 
meanis, and these means I generalize into four— work, love, psychol- 
ogy and knowledge. But you must, at the same time, remember 
that these divisions are not very marked. Each blends into the other, 
but as the tyiDe prevails the divisions come. It is not that you can- 
not find a man who has no other faculty excepting that of work, or 
that you cannot find men who are more than worshippers only, nor 
men who have more than knowledge. These divisions are made on 
account of the type or tendency that prevails in a man. We have 
found that, in the end, they all converge and become one, reach- 
ing one goal. All religions and all methods of work are going towards 
that goal. 

First I will try to point out the goal. What is the goal of the 
whole universe? Freedom. Everything that we see, feel, hear is 
struggling towards freedom, from the atom to the man, from the 
insentient, lifeless particle of matter to the highest human existence, 
the human soul. The whole universe is the result of this struggle 
for freedom. In all these combinations every particle is trying to 
fly from the other particles, and the others are holding it in check. 
Our earth is trying to fly from the sun and the moon from the earth. 
Everything has a tendency to infinite dispersion. All that we see in 
this universe, good, bad or indifferent, all the work or thought that 
is in this universe, has for its basis this one struggle towards free- 
dom; it is under the impulse of this that the saint prays and the 
robber robs. When the line of action taken is not a proper one we 
call it evil, and when the manifestation is proper and high we call it 
good. But the imipulse is the same, to struggle towards that free- 
dom. The saint is oppressed with the idea of his bondage, and he 
wants to get rid of it, so he worships God. The thief is oppressed 
with the idea that he does not possess certain things, and he wants 
to get rid of that, to get freedom from it, so he steals. Freedom is 
the one goal of all nature, sentient or insentient, and, consciously or 
unconsciously, everything is struggling towards that. 



49 

We find in every religion the manifestation of this struggle 
towards freedom. It is the groundwork of all morality, of unseltish- 
ness, which means getting out of 'the idea that I am this little body. 
When we see a man doing good work, helping others, it means that 
that man will not be confined within the limited circle of "me and 
mine." There is no limit to this getting out. All the great systems 
of ethics preach absolute unselfishness as the goal. Supposing this 
absolute unselfishness can be reached by a man, what becomes of 
that manV He is no more that little Mr. So-and-so; ^he has acquired 
infinite expansion. That little personality which he had before is 
lost forever; he has become infinite, and the attainment of this in- 
finite expansion is the goal of all religions and of all teachings. The 
personalist, when he hears the idea philosophically put, gets fright- 
ened. At the same time, when he is preaching morality, he is preach- 
ing the very same thing. He puts no, limit to the unselfishness of 
man. Suppose a man becomes perfectly unselfish under the per- 
sonalistic system, how are we to distinguish him from others in other 
systems? He is one with the universe, and that is the goal, onlj- the 
poor personalist dares not follow out his own premises to their right 
conclUiSion. Karma Yoga is attaining this goal through unselfish 
work, that freedom which is the goal of human nature. Every sel- 
fish action, therefore, retards our reaching the goal, and every unsel- 
fish action takes us towards the goal; that is wihy the only definition 
that can be given of morality is this— that w^hich is selfish is im- 
moral, and that which is unselfish is moral. 

But, if you come to the details, you will find a difference. For in- 
stance, environment will make the details different. The same ac- 
tion under one set of circumstances will be unselfish, and under an- 
other set will be selfish. So w^e can give only a general definition 
and leave the details to be worked out by the difference in time, 
place and circumstance. In one country one sort of behaviour will 
be considered moral, and in another very immoral, because the cir- 
cumstances differ. We find that the goal of all nature is freedom, 
and that this freedom is only to be attained by perfect unselfishness, 
and every action, thought, word or deed that is unselfish takes us 
towards the goal and, as such, is called moral. That definition, you 
will find, will hold good for every religion and every system of ethics. 
For instance, you will find different ideas of ethics. In so^me sys- 
tems they are derived from a superior Being, God. If you ask 
why a man shall do this and ijot do that they will answer. Because it 
is the command of God. But whatever be the source from which it is 
derived, their code of ethics will have as the one central idea not 
to think of self, to give up self. And yet some of 'them with this 
high ethical idea are frightened to give up their little personalities. 



50 

I would ask the man who would cling to the little persoualities to 
consider the case of a man who has become perfectly unselfish, who 
has no thought for himiself, who does no deed for himself, who speaks 
no word for himself, then where is "himself?" That "himself" is 
personal to him so long as he thinks, acts and knows for himself. 
If he is only conscious of others, of the universe, where is himself? 
It is gone forever. 

This Karma Yoga, therefore, is a system to attain to freedom 
through unselfishness, by good works. The Karma Yogi need not 
have any doctrine whatever. He may not believe in a God, may not 
ask what his soul is or think of any metaphysical speculation. He 
has got his special task; he has got to work it out himself. Every 
moment of Ms life must be realization, 'because he is working out, 
without a doctrine or theory, the very same problem that t)he Gnani 
or the worshipper speculates upon and formulates as doctrines. 

Now comes the next question. What is this work? What is this 
doing good to the world? Can w^e do good to the world? In an 
absolute sense, no; in a relative sense, yes. No permanent good can 
be done to this world; if it could be it would not be this world. We 
can satisfy the hunger of a man for five minutes, and he will be 
hungry again. Every pleasure with which we can supply a man can 
only be momentary. No one can iDermanently cure this ever-recur- 
ring series of pleasure and pain. Can any permanent mas^ of hap- 
piness be given to the world? No, not even that. In the ocean 
you cannot raise one wave without making a hollow somewhere else. 
The sum total of the energies in the world is the same throughout, 
always the same. It cannot be increased or decreased. Take the 
history of the human race as we know it to-day. The same miseries 
and the same happinesses, the same pleasure and pain, the same 
differences in position; some rich, some poor, some high in position, 
some low, some healthy, some unhealthy. You find it was just the 
same with the ancient Egyptians, the Greeks, the Romans, as with 
the Americans to-day. So far as history is known it has always been 
the same; yet, at the same time, we find that, running along with all 
these differences of pleasure and pain, there has ever been the strug- 
gle to alleviate it. At every period of history there have been 
thousands of men and women who have been struggling to smooth 
the passage of life of others. And they have never succeeded. We 
can only play at driving the ball from one place to another. We 
take pain from the physical body, and it goes to the mental body. 
It is like that picture in Dante's hell where the misers were given 
a mass of gold. They began pushing it up the hill, and again it 
rolled down. Thus this wheel is going on. All these talks about a 
millennium are very nice as schoolt)oys' stories, ibut no better than 



51 

that. All nations that dream of millenniutas also think that they 
will have the best of it at that time; this is the wonderfully un- 
selfisih idea of this millennium. 

We come to this, that we cannot add happiness to this world; 
similarly, we cannot add pain. The sum total of the energies dis- 
played will he the same throug-hout. We just push it from this side 
to the other side, and from that sid-e to this, but it will remain the 
same, because it is its very nature. This ebb and flow, this rising 
and falling, is its very nature; it would be as logical to say we 
can have life without death. It is complete nonsense, because the 
very idea of life is constant death. The lamp is constantly burning 
out,'and that is its life. If you want life you will have to die evei*y 
moment also. These are only different expressions for the same 
thing, looked at from different standpoints; each of them is the fall- 
ing and the rising of the same wave, and the two form one link. 
One looks at the "fall" side and' becomes a pessimist or at the "rise" 
side and becomes an optimist. When a boy is going to school and his 
father and mother are taking care of him everything seems blessed 
to him; his wants are simple; he is a great optimist. But the old 
man, with his experience, lias become calmer, and he has cooled 
down. So old nations, will decay all around them, are less hopeful 
than new nations. There is a proverb in India, a thousand years a 
city and athousand years a forest. This change is going on, and it 
makes people optimists or pessimists according to the side they see. 

The next idea w^e wall take up is the idea of equality. These mil- 
lennium ideas have been great motive powers to work. Many religions 
preacTi this as an element. God is coming to rule the universe; there 
will be n^ difference in conditions. Tlie people who preach this are 
fanatics, and fanatics are the sincerest of mankind. Christianity 
was preached just on this fanaticism, and that was what made it at- 
tractive to the Greek slaves and the Roman slaves. They believed 
they Avould have no more slavery, plenty to eat and drink, and there- 
fore they flocked round the standard. Those who preached the idea 
first were, of course, ignorant fanatics, ibut very sincere. In modern 
times it takes the form of equality— equality, liberty and fraternity. 
This is also fanaticism. This equality has never been and never can 
be. How could you be equal here? That would (be death. What 
makes this world? Lost balance. In the primal state, -which is 
called Chaos, there is perfect balance. How do all these forces come? 
By struggling, competition, conflict. Suppose all these particles of 
matter were held in equilibrium, would there be creation? We know 
from science there would not be. Disturb the water, and you find 
every particle of water ti-ying to become calm again, one rushing 
against the other, and in this way come aU these phenomena which 



52 

you call the universe— all things are struggling to get back to the 
state of perfect balance. Then again a disturbance will come, and 
this combination will go on, making creation. Inequality is the veiy 
basis of creation. At the same time, the forces struggling to obtain 
equality are as much a necessity of creation as those which de- 
stroy it. 

Absolute equality, that which means a perfect balance of all the 
struggling forces, will never ibe in this world. Before you have at- 
tained to that state the world will have cooled down and become a 
lump of ice, and no one will be here. We find, therefore, that all 
these ideas of millennium, or absolute equality, are not only impos- 
sible, but, if we could carry them out, they would lead to the day of 
destruction. There is, again, the difference in the brains of men. 
What makes the difference between man and man? It is the differ- 
ence in the brain. Nowadays no one but a lunatic will say we are all 
born with the same brain power. We have come into the iworld as un- 
equal; we have come as greater men or as le&ser men, and there is 
no getting away from that. The Alneriican Indians were in this coun- 
try for thousands of years, and a few handfuis of your ancestors 
came. What made all the difference, if 'we are all the same? Why 
could not the Indians have made improvements and built cities, why 
did they not go about hunting in the forests all the time, if we are all 
equal? A different sort of brain matter came, different bundles of 
past impressions came, and they worked out and manifested them- 
selves. Absolute non-differentiation is death. So long as this world 
lasts, this differentiation will be, but the aniilennium will come, when 
the cycle comes to an end. Before that equality cannot be. Yet this 
idea is a great motive power. Just as this inequality is necessar^^ for 
creation, so the struggle to limit it is necessary. If there were no 
differentiation there would be no creation ; if there were no struggle 
to become free and get back there would be no creation; but it is the 
difference between the two forces that makes the motive power. 
There will, therefore, always be these motive powers to work. 

This wheel within Wheel is terrible mechanism; if we put our 
hands in, as- soon as we are caught we are gone. Each one of us thinks 
that when we have done a certain duty, we will be at rest, but before 
we have done a part of that, another is waiting. We are all being 
dragged along by this machine. There are only two ways; one is to 
give up the machine, to let go, and stand aside.- Give up our desires. 
That is very easy to say, but it is almost impossible to do. I do not 
know whether in twenty millions of men one can do that. The other 
way is to plunge into the world and learn the secret of work, and 
that is Karma Yoga. Do not fly from them, but stand inside and 



53 

know the- secret of work. Througli work we shall come out. Through 
that machinery is the way out. 

We have now seen what this work is. To sum up the whole thing, 
this work goes on all the time, and those that believe in a God will 
understand it better by thinking that God is not sijch an incapable 
person as to require our help. Secondly, this universe will go on al- 
ways. We must remember that our goal is( freedom; our goal is un- 
selfishness, and that goal is to be reached through work, and, there- 
fore, we must learn the setcret of work. So far we have learnt that 
this work goes on; all such ideas as of making this world perfectly 
happy may be good as motive powers, for fanatics; such silly ideas 
may have been good in old times, but we must always know that, 
although fanaticism is a very good motive power, and does some good 
work, at the same time it brings as much evil as good. The Karma 
Yogi asks why should you require any motive to work? Be beyond 
motives. "To work you have the rigiht, but not to the fruits thereof." 
Man can train himself to that, says the Karma Yogi. When the idea 
of doing good will come into his very being, then he will not seek for 
any motive outside. Why shall we do good? Because we like, and 
ask no questions. Do good.because it is good to do good; he who does 
good work in order to get to heaven binds himself, says the Karma 
Yogi. Any work that is done with a motive, instead of making us 
free, which is the goal, makes one more chain for our feet. If we 
think by such and such work we shall get to heaven, we shall be at- 
tracted to a place called heaven, and we shall have to go and see all 
these things; that will be one more bondage. 

So the only way is to give up all the fruits of work; be non- 
attached. Know that this world is not we, or we this world; that we 
are really not the body; that we really do not work. We are the 
Self, eternally at rest and at peace. Why should we be bound by 
anything? We must not weep; there is no weeping for the Soul. We 
must not even weep for sym.pathy. Only, we like that sort of thing, 
and, in our imagination, we think that God is weeping in that way on 
His throne. Such a God would not be worth attaining. Why should 
God weep at all? It is a sign of weakness, of bondage. There should 
be not a drop of tears. How can it be done? It is very good to say 
be perfectly non-attached, but what is the way to do it ? Every good 
work we do without any ulterior motive, instead of forging a chain, 
will break one of the links in our chain. Everj^ good thought that we 
send to the world, without thinking of the return, will be stored up, 
and break one link in the chain, and make us purer, until we become 
the purest of mortals. Yet it seems to be rather quixotic and phil- 
osophical, than practical. I have read many arguments against the 
Ghita, and many have raised the argument that without motive you 



54 

cannot work. They have never seen work, except fanaticism, and, 
therefore, speak in that way. 

I will tell you in a few words about one man who carried it into 
practice. That man was Buddha. He is the one man who ever carried 
this into perfect practice. All tiie prophets of the world, except 
Buddha, had external motive power to move them. The prophets of 
the world, Avith his exception, can be divided into two sets, one set 
who say they are God come down on earth, and the other who say 
they are messengers from God; and both draw their impetus from 
outside, expect reward from outside, however spiritual may be the 
language they use. But Buddha is the only prophet who said "I do 
not care to know your various theories about God. What is the use 
of discussing all the subtile doctrines about the soul? Do good and 
be good. And this will take you to whatever truth there is." He was 
absolutely without motive power, and what man worked more than 
he? Show me in history one character whO' w^ent so high above all; 
the whole human race has produced but one isuch character; such, 
high philosophy; such sympathy; this great philosopher, preaching the 
highest philosoph5% and yet having sympathy for the lowest animals, 
and never making any claims. He is the ideal Karma Yogi, acting 
entirely without motive, and the history of humanity shows him to 
have been the greatest man ever born; beyond compare of all others, 
the greatest combination of heart and brain that ever existed, the 
greatest soul-power that was ever manifested. He was the first great 
reformer the w^orld ever saw. He w^as the first who dared to say, 
"Believe not because some old manuscripts are produced, believe not 
because it is your national belief, because you have been made fo 
believe from your childhood, but reason it out, and after you have an- 
alyzed it, then, if you find it will do good to one and all, believe It, 
live up to it, and help others to live up to it." He works best who 
works w^ithout any motive power, neither for money nor anything 
else, and when a man can do that, he will be a Buddha, and out of 
him will come the power to work in such a manner as to transform the 
world. This is the very ideal of Karma Yoga. 



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